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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26458834">Prom King</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mellojelllo/pseuds/Mellojelllo'>Mellojelllo</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Glee</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - High School, Bullying, Closeted!Kurt, Glee Potluck Big Bang 2020, Jock!Kurt, M/M, football player!kurt</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-09-14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-09-14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 07:48:40</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>24,457</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26458834</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mellojelllo/pseuds/Mellojelllo</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Kurt Hummel is the most popular boy at McKinley High. A wonderful girlfriend, a position as star kicker on the football team, and a stellar reputation; he has everything. Well, almost everything…<br/>There’s nothing like a minor head injury to shake things up.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Blaine Anderson/Kurt Hummel</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>27</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>98</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Glee Potluck Big Bang 2020</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Prom King</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>This came about when I asked myself what it would've been like if Kurt had stayed on the football team. I'm super excited to share it with you!<br/>Warning for mentions of bullying/hate crimes, but no actual depictions of them.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>There’s something about Kurt Hummel. When he walks down the hall, heads turn. He floats in slow motion, and seems to glow. When he tugs on the sleeves of his crimson varsity jacket (lined with satin, because the felt-y polyester irritates his skin) and picks at the pills on the cuffs that have formed from wear, golden sparks rain from his fingertips. When his airy laugh echoes against the lockers, an angel gets its wings. He is, in short, ethereal. At least, that’s how Blaine sees it.  </p><p>Blaine shoves his physics textbook in his locker and turns to look at Tina, who’s been talking for a while. </p><p>“Well? Whaddya say?” She asks. He didn’t hear her initial question.</p><p>“About what? Sorry.” He scratches the back of his neck embarrassedly.</p><p>“Running for prom royalty. I think we could have a serious shot this year.” She proposes. Blaine chokes back a laugh and slams his locker.</p><p>“As long as Kurt Hummel and Quinn Fabray are together, nobody has a chance. Look at them.” Blaine points to the couple, which is currently gazing deeply into each other’s eyes and chatting in front of Quinn’s locker. “They’re ridiculously popular, they’re practically royalty already. The only thing they’re missing are the crowns. Also, they’re like… a machine.” Blaine pushes off of his locker and starts walking to his next class, arm linked with Tina’s. </p><p>“What do you mean?”</p><p>“Everything they do is so calculated and perfect. It’s like they practice how they’re going to be at home and then come to school and do it. Have you noticed how they talk to each other? It’s like they have some kind of government secret. It’s weird! But somehow, they’re still so cool!” Blaine rants. Tina looks at him like he’s insane. </p><p>“Let me just call the president, see if he knows of two random Ohio teenagers who have important intel.” She jokes, and the bell rings.</p><p> </p><p>+_+_+</p><p>Blaine tolerates his classes. He loved school back at Dalton, but his parents decided that there was a “better job opportunity”  in “Lima” and the “commute” was “too long for him to stay at Dalton” even though he was “mildly traumatized by the prospect of public school because of the events at his old high school” according to his “therapist”.<br/>
Mr. Schue is conjugating a Spanish verb on the board, and Blaine isn’t sure if the man is qualified to do this at all. So, he endures Spanish, he fights through English, he daydreams through history, and he waits until he can make it to lunch.</p><p>“Estar. Estoy. Estamos.” Blaine repeats. He doodles a little alien on his worksheet. It has a pointed chin, big eyes, and a varsity jacket. Next to it, he adds a robot with a high pony and cheer uniform. He connects their arms so that they’re holding hands, and attempts not to laugh. How on the nose! He erases it and brushes the little pink eraser bits off of his desk, but the faint indent of his drawing still remains. If someone didn’t know what it was initially, they probably wouldn’t be able to tell what it had been, but Blaine knows. He starts to sketch some random lines and clouds, and wonders why he’s so fixated on them in the first place. Their astronomical popularity, maybe?</p><p>“El secreto.” He thinks. El secreto indeed. </p><p>_+_+_</p><p>The grey sludge hits Blaine’s red plastic lunch tray with a slap, and he questions why he didn’t bring a sandwich from home. He scootches down the line, and grabs some tots, a fruit cup, and a cookie. At least those are edible. He glances at the popular kids’ table, and sees that Kurt Hummel and Quinn Fabray are splitting some lovely little lavender-colored cheesecake thing that makes his cold school lunch cookie look like cat food. He takes a messy bite as he weaves his way to the glee club’s usual table, and lets the chocolate chips melt on his tongue. Well, a cookie is a cookie, that’s for sure. He slides onto the red plastic bench, and sets his tray down with the distinctive “tch” of the materials scraping together. </p><p>“Do you think they make the tables and the lunch trays out of the same thing?” He asks, mouth full of cookie. Some crumbs fall out into his lap, and he brushes them off. </p><p>“Well, they’re both plastic, so it has to be similar. Are you asking if they’re the same plastic?” Rachel questions, inspecting the table. </p><p>“Check if the color is the same.” Mercedes suggests. Blaine hunches down and squints at the space between his tray and the table. The table is slightly darker, more crimson than straight red.</p><p>“I think they’re different.” He concludes, and finishes his cookie.</p><p>“I question the structural integrity of the table more than the lunch tray.” Artie notes. Everyone laughs. </p><p>“So what song are you guys gonna sing for 60s-but-no-Beatles week?” Sam questions, distracting everyone from the table-tray debacle.</p><p>“I’m doing Cry Baby by Janis Joplin.” Mercedes replies. Chimes of “good choice” and “ooh” ring around the table.</p><p>“I’m going to do I Will Follow Him by Little Peggy March. It’s such a classic, I’m shocked I haven’t done it yet.” Rachel says.</p><p>“Blaine and I are going to do I Got You Babe while Mike dances.” Tina grins.</p><p>“It’s a best friend song too!” Blaine states.</p><p>“Hey, where are Santana and Brittany?” Rachel asks out of the blue, mouth full of pasta. The glee club has a problem with talking with their mouths full.</p><p>“Over at the popular table, with the space creatures we know as Kurt and Quinn.” Blaine sighs. His friends collectively stop and look at him like he grew a second head. “What? Okay, I have this theory. They’re always together, they have this like… secret language of nods and whispers and stuff, and their popularity is insane. They’re like celebrities! That doesn’t just happen! Also, have you seen them? Kurt looks like he’s literally glowing all the time. It’s weird.” </p><p>“He’s been talking about this all day.” Tina adds. </p><p>“Blaine, they’ve been dating for years. They’re just close. They’re crazy popular because Kurt is the kicker on the football team and has won us more games than we ever have in McKinley history, and Quinn’s the head cheerleader and queen bitch. And Kurt is just really pale, I think that’s the light reflecting off of his skin.” Mercedes chuckles, and puts a reassuring hand on Blaine’s shoulder. </p><p>“I mean, it makes a little sense…” Sam considers, and Blaine perks up.</p><p>“No, Sam.” Mercedes says through gritted teeth.<br/>
The bell rings, and the table disperses. Blaine throws his grey mush away, and doesn’t watch to see if it will climb out of the trash can by itself as he sometimes suspects it will. He turns to put away his tray, and his body collides with a brick wall. A very soft, nice-smelling brick wall. A brick wall that is saying,</p><p>“Oh my gosh, I’m sorry. Are you alright?” In the most pleasant voice. Blaine looks up from his spot on the ground to see a slender outstretched hand and an arm sheathed in an off white sleeve. Of course, said sleeve is connected to a jacket, which is on a person. Blaine takes a moment to make this connection, because he kind of hit his head on the trash can on his way down (which made a horrifically loud clanging noise for how minimal the damage really was). Once he does realize, he also notices that this person is Kurt Hummel. He reaches up, allows Kurt to pull him to his feet, and tries to ignore how strong Kurt’s arms are. </p><p>“I should be the one apologizing! Look out, attack lunch tray! Or, attack... me, I guess. The tray’s fine. Ha. Anyway, yeah, sorry! Thanks for helping me up. Uh… I’m… yeah. Are you okay?” Blaine stutters, blushing profusely. Nothing he’s saying makes any sense, and he’s totally embarrassing himself. He doesn’t see Tina (who had stopped when she heard his head hit the trash can) cringe at his social ineptitude, as he’s too busy deciding if he should look at the floor or at Kurt. Kurt smiles a little. </p><p>“I’m okay, I didn’t just hit my head on a metal trash can. Let me walk you to the nurse.” Kurt suggests. Blaine is about to say that he’s fine, but he realizes that being concussed is definitely a good excuse for whatever the hell he’d just said. </p><p>“Alright.” Blaine squeaks. He mentally berates himself. He hasn’t had his voice crack since freshman year! They walk through the hall in silence, but heads turn when the passersby see <em>the</em> Kurt Hummel walking with some nobody from glee club and not someone popular in a uniform. They stop in front of the nurse’s office, and Kurt pats Blaine on the shoulder. The contact feels like a thousand warm hugs around his shoulder blade. </p><p>“I’m so sorry, again.” Kurt apologizes. </p><p>“It’s fine. I know it was an accident, no biggie. You probably have to get to class, right? Like, you have it now? Class, I mean.” Blaine cringes again, because who asks that? He obviously has class, they’re at school.</p><p>“Let’s go in and have her check you out. I’ll get a late pass, but I’d rather stay in case I’m liable for something.” Kurt jokes. Blaine barks out a laugh that’s just way too much for how mild the joke was. Kurt guides Blaine into the nurse’s office, and sits him down in one of the plastic chairs. Blaine wonders if it’s made out of the same thing as the lunch tray and table.</p><p>“Hello, Kurt.” The nurse greets. </p><p>“We bumped into each other in the cafeteria and he hit his head pretty hard. I’m worried he might be concussed.” Kurt explains to her. </p><p>“Alright. Let’s get you checked out. Name?” Blaine squints at her, before realizing she’s asking him.</p><p>“Oh! Sorry. Blaine Anderson.” He replies.</p><p>“Any headache? Dizziness? Nausea?” She questions as she looks at his eyes.</p><p>“A little, yeah.” </p><p>“Do you think your mental condition is impaired?” </p><p>“Uh… probably.” He says after considering for a moment.</p><p>“I’ll call your mom. You can go lie down while you wait. Kurt, do you want to stay or go back to class?” The nurse walks to the phone, while Blaine climbs up onto the weird plasticky bed thing and rests his head on the small disposable pillow.</p><p>“I’ll stay. It’s just gym, I can miss it.” Kurt decides. Blaine celebrates silently.</p><p>“Don’t let him fall asleep.”</p><p>_+_+_+</p><p>A moment of Kurt: To Quinn</p><p>K: Papa don’t preach, I’m in trouble deep</p><p>Q: you’ve been losing sleep, but you’ve made up your mind, you’re keeping your baby?</p><p>K: I’m gonna keep my baby, ooh</p><p>Q: for real, K, what’s up?</p><p>K: ran into you know who in the caf and gave him a potential concussion, nurse is checking him out</p><p>Q: wtf? How did that happen?</p><p>K: was walking one way, he was throwing away his lunch and turned around to walk the other way, he’s short and I wasn’t paying attention and then it was like head meet metal trash can </p><p>Q: damn he ok? U ok?</p><p>K: I’m fine he sorta knocked the wind out of me but nobody has to know that. Idk about him though cause he got super weird after and kept saying things that made no sense </p><p>K: nurse says yes to concussion </p><p>K: at the nurse’s he asked me if I had class</p><p>Q: of course u have class it’s school</p><p>K: i know shut up </p><p>Q:  We have gym with some of these glee people I can get the intel </p><p>K: Nah too obvious we have a really good thing going here don’t wanna mess it up </p><p>Q: true. </p><p>K: his mom came he thanked me profusely for helping him up after I literally gave him a concussion and he said see u around like everyone doesn’t see us around</p><p>Q: lol good luck he sounds like a riot </p><p>K: ya c u in a minute xoxo</p><p>_+_+_+</p><p>“Definitely a very mild concussion, nothing to sweat about. Just limit your exercise and get lots of rest and you’ll be good for school on Monday. TGIF, right?” The doctor concludes. Blaine sighs and nods, scooching off of the cold metal examination table. He almost wishes it was worse, so he’d have a better excuse for his utterly tragic behavior. He gets his sticker from the doctor (because it’s fun in an ironic way, okay?), spaces out as his mom gets the bill, and lets his eyes gloss over during the car ride home.</p><p>“So what happened, Blaine? Was this another bullying situation?” His mother asks when they park in the driveway.</p><p>“No. I bumped into someone in the cafeteria, that’s all. He waited in the nurse’s office with me.” Blaine mumbles.</p><p>“Okay, I’ll take your word for it. Any more incidents and I’m going to get suspicious, though.” His mother states plainly. He groans, and gets out of the car.</p><p>“It was not bullying!” Blaine yells down the stairs as he climbs up to his bedroom to take a nap. First he checks his phone, and sees a plethora of missed messages from his friends.</p><p>_+_+_+</p><p>Tina C!</p><p>T: omg Blaine</p><p>T: what happened?</p><p>T: hello?</p><p>T: what was that?</p><p>T: can’t believe u touched Kurt Hummel wmhs royalty </p><p>T: and said something totally stupid while doing it</p><p>T: like seriously </p><p>B: I just got a mild concussion which means all words were my own, but Kurt doesn’t have to know that. </p><p>T: what happened? I saw most of it then u stumbled out of the caf 2gether and I was like whaaaat but I had to go to class and then he wasn’t in gym</p><p>B: we went to the nurse where I further made a fool of myself, and then I went to the doctor. Kurt stayed with me until my mom got there because he felt bad or something?</p><p>T: that’s so cool </p><p>T: maybe you’ll get popular</p><p>T: goodbye slushie facials </p><p>T: hello parties and hot boys</p><p>B: I don’t think I’m in high demand, Tina.</p><p>T: I was talking about me</p><p>B: what about mike?</p><p>T: I’m not going to have my cake but I’m sure going to eat it</p><p>B: I’m too concussed for this</p><p>_+_+_</p><p>From: Rachel Berry</p><p>R: OMG</p><p>R: YOU TOUCHED KURT HUMMEL</p><p>R: THATS LIKE BEING KNIGHTED</p><p>R: AAAAAAAAAAAAAA</p><p>R: TELL ME EVERYTHING </p><p>B: the volume of your texts is hurting my head</p><p>R: sorry</p><p>B: he smelled really good it was weird cuz football guys normally smell like they just came back from the dead </p><p>R: AAAAAAAAAAA WHY WONT HE JOIN GLEE &gt;:(</p><p>B: take a guess hun</p><p>_+_+_+_+</p><p>He turns his phone off, and goes to bed. </p><p>He dreams of slender hands and a wind-chime laugh. </p><p>Also, aliens.</p><p>The weekend passes anticlimactically. His head gets (mostly) better, he practices his song for glee (It’s My Party by Leslie Gore, a decided tribute to his concussion), and his mom goes to France for a conference. </p><p>_+_+_+</p><p>School on Monday is no different than it ever is. Blaine goes to class, he goes to lunch, he goes to glee club, and he talks to Tina in front of his car before he goes home. Kurt Hummel holds hands with Quinn and doesn’t even blink in his direction. </p><p>“In retrospect, I’m surprised at how nice he was. Most of the popular people here treat us like garbage. Hell, even Quinn hates us.” Blaine remarks as he unlocks his car door.</p><p>“I… yeah. Huh. Did he talk to you today?” </p><p>“No. He didn’t even look at me. God, how is he so perfect?” Blaine groans, tossing his head back and draping himself across the hood of his car dramatically.</p><p>“What’s your deal with him? Do you like him or something?” Tina asks nonchalantly.</p><p>“No! He’s just so mysterious! Plus, it’s not my fault that he looks like he was like… it’s like someone sent him down from heaven but they were like, ‘we’re not gonna disguise you or anything, you can just look like you do up here!’” Blaine gushes. The frustration in his voice doesn’t match with his words in the slightest.</p><p>“Awww, Blainey-Days, you have a crush on him!” Tina exclaims, grinning. Blaine slides down his car hood (or rather, slowly squeaks down it) until he’s sitting on the dirty gravelly ground.</p><p>“I do not!” He dissents, crossing his arms.</p><p>“I won’t tell a soul.” </p><p>“I don’t have a crush on him!” </p><p>“Sure.”</p><p>“Bye, Tina.” Blaine says. He rises, brushes the dirt off of his pants, gets in his car, waves, and drives away. He does not have a crush on Kurt Hummel! Super popular, awesome, gorgeous, kind Kurt Hummel who’s never slushied him and is bound to win prom king, because if someone were to look up “king” in the dictionary he’d probably be the picture. </p><p>Also see: uh oh<br/>
Also see: Blaine Anderson has a fat crush on popular, straight, taken Kurt Hummel.<br/>
Also see: Autocide? </p><p>Luckily, Blaine makes it home with little incident. He runs into his empty house and up the stairs, and flops on his bed.</p><p>“Woe!” He thinks. “I am in agony!” He is currently reading Much Ado About Nothing in English, and it’s seriously influencing his thought patterns. He rubs his hand down his face in exasperation, and notes how rough his hand’s callouses feel against his messed-up-by-virtue-of-being-17 face. Kurt’s hands were crazy soft, like they should be on a newborn baby instead of a teenage boy (further evidence for his alien theory, he supposes). Blaine rolls over, grabs his phone, and hits shuffle. He hopes that whatever comes on will distract him from his plight and allow him to struggle through his homework like any other day. Unfortunately, “Constant Craving” begins to blare. He considers throwing his phone across the room, and imagines the satisfying crunch of the glass hitting the wall that would undoubtedly lead to the necessary silencing of K.D. Lang’s soulful voice. Fortunately, he’s able to refrain from doing so, and instead presses skip until a less painful and much more aggressive Alanis Morisette song comes on. He decides that he hates everything ever, and that sports should be illegal so he wouldn’t have to think about how striking the letterman jacket looks against Kurt’s pale skin or how strong his arms are. If it weren’t for sports, they could be on the same playing field. </p><p>_+_+_+_+</p><p>“Blaine! I have the perfect mashup for us to do for this week’s glee club lesson. It’s sort of an homage to Betty and James, and it has this sound so that it’s like you’re waking up after a hundred-year nap. I’m worried we’ll be a little flat in the B-portion, but I think my incredible vibrato during the switches from Purple to I Am will be show-stopping enough for us to get it.” Rachel bursts out during lunch. Blaine gapes at her, because absolutely nothing she’s saying makes any sense. Mercedes’ brow is furrowed as well, signifying that Blaine probably isn’t going crazy. Though, nothing she says makes sense most of the time regardless. The only difference in this instance is that he can’t understand it. </p><p>“Who? What? Our assignment was 70s this week, right?” Blaine asks. Artie nods slowly, and the lost look in his eyes further assuages Blaine’s concern that his concussion was a lot worse than the doctor had said. </p><p>“I got you. I was testing you, and you passed!” Rachel squeals, and reaches across the table to high-five Puck. Blaine wonders if he’s having a fever dream.</p><p>“What exactly are you testing?” Artie asks, seemingly more perplexed than he is. </p><p>“If you’ve been paying attention. You’ve been so spacey lately.” </p><p>“That’s because of my concussion, Rach.” Blaine sighs, even though it’s really not. </p><p>“Oh. Right.” </p><p>“So I’m gonna go to the bathroom. Anyone wanna come with? Safety in numbers.” Blaine announces, standing up. Nobody else wants to go, so he has to bear the tumultuous McKinley hallways alone. “Okay. I’ll be back soon, if I live.” </p><p>He manages to survive the distance without being slushied or murdered, most likely because the usual culprits are too busy eating to have any concern for him. He walks into the bathroom, which is usually empty during lunch save for the occasional couple that comes in to make out. Even then, they usually opt for the girl’s bathroom because it’s cleaner. Today, however, it is not empty. Blaine spots red converse under one of the stall doors, and thinks nothing of it. Like, it’s a bathroom. There are going to be people in there. </p><p>The problem arises when Blaine goes to wash his hands and fix his hair, and the other person determines that they must also wash their hands at this time. So, the other person exits their stall, and gives a ‘hello’ nod to Blaine. No, that’s not the problem. The problem is that this person is Kurt Hummel, and that Kurt Hummel looks like he got hit by a bus. Well, that’s not entirely accurate. He looks like he just attended the funeral of somebody that was hit by a bus. His eyes are watery, his nose and mouth red and puffy, and he’s splashing his face with cold water.</p><p>“Um…  are you okay?” Blaine asks. He cringes, realizing that he probably just way overstepped. Kurt snaps up.</p><p>“Oh no, is it that bad?” He groans. His voice is thick and stuffy. He rustles through his bag until he finds a can of hairspray, and sprays his hair urgently. Blaine can taste it, but he really wishes he couldn’t.</p><p>“I think anything I answer will be wrong.” Blaine admits with a smile he immediately regrets, as more hairspray enters his mouth. “How toxic is that stuff?”</p><p>“Believe it or not, it’s organic.” Kurt stops spraying, caps the can, and shoves it back in his bag. He leans over the sink, and inspects himself more closely in the mirror. “Ugh.”</p><p>“It’s not that bad.” Blaine decides, because he thinks Kurt is hands down the most attractive man on the whole planet.</p><p>“I appreciate it. Blaine, right?” Kurt asks. His tone is off, like he’s actually entirely certain. But that wouldn’t make sense, because why would the most popular boy in school remember little ol’ Blaine’s name?</p><p>“Yeah. Do you need anything?” He asks. He never knows what to do when people are crying, even though he’s had ample experience with Tina. </p><p>“No, thank you.” </p><p>“Water? I have a water bottle in my bag.” Blaine suggests, and Kurt stares at him for a moment. He wonders if he is about to be torn apart as he’s seen happen so many times. He prepares for the biting “I don’t need anything from you, loser, get out of my bathroom, etc”, but it never comes. </p><p>“Uh, actually, yeah, water sounds good. Thanks.” Kurt says oddly quietly. Blaine pulls his dented reusable water bottle out of the mesh pocket in his bag, and hands it to him.</p><p>“It’s a nice shade of blue.” Kurt remarks, before unscrewing the squeaky cap and taking a ridiculously small sip.</p><p>“You can have more than that, it’s just water.” Blaine prompts. He drinks a more regular amount, holding the bottle strangely. Instead of wrapping his hand around it, he clutches the bottom. </p><p>“Thank you.”</p><p>“Hey, don’t mention it. You took me to the nurse last week, we’re even now.” Kurt’s eyes widen, and he looks down quickly.</p><p>“I almost killed you last week. As far as I’m concerned, I should be giving you the water.” Kurt says. Blaine laughs.</p><p>“The trash can almost killed me last week. You were just the catalyst. Plus, the doctor said it was only a mild concussion. I’m totally fine now!” Blaine explains.</p><p>“It was? That’s good. I thought…” </p><p>“I’m totally good.”</p><p>“You are making a lot more sense today.” </p><p>“Ha. Yeah.” The bell rings, and for the first time in his life, Blaine would rather stay in the school bathroom. </p><p>“Well, thanks for the water. Maybe we’ll run into each other again later?” </p><p>“Hopefully with less pain on my part.” Blaine jokes, walking out of the bathroom. </p><p>“Oh, Blaine?” Kurt yells, and Blaine spins around. “Please don’t tell anyone you saw me crying.”</p><p>“No problem, Boblem.” Blaine wants to die. Who says that? Who???? </p><p>_+_+_+_</p><p>A moment of Kurt: To Quinn</p><p>K: P</p><p>Q: You suck, K. Why do you have to text like this nothing you ever say makes any sense. </p><p>K: sry phone was in hand on</p><p>Q: whatever. Where were you at lunch? You left so fast.</p><p>K: bathroom</p><p>Q: for 45 full minutes? Are you dying?</p><p>K: dying with a c</p><p>Q: please speak English</p><p>K: I was crying in the stall Q</p><p>Q: Oh. What is it this time?</p><p>K: You’re so kind.</p><p>K: U know wha t it was </p><p>Q: what was it? </p><p>K: nosy!</p><p>Q: ha ha. Like we don’t tell each other everything</p><p>K: its just a lot :( </p><p>Q: I’m sorry.</p><p>Q: I’ll cheer extra hard today </p><p>K: love you </p><p>Q: love you too, K.</p><p>K: ya and I ran into him again today</p><p>Q: Jeez 2 for 2</p><p>K: not literally this time, he was in the bathroom</p><p>Q: hmmm</p><p>K: he caught me crying. He was very sweet, so shut your mouth. He gave me some water</p><p>K: also pretty sure most of his concussion blabbing is actually how he talks </p><p>Q: don’t you have your water bottle on you like… always?</p><p>K: he doesn’t have to know that </p><p>K: plus I finally got this to him I stuck it on the bottom </p><p>Q: took you long enough! Do you think he’ll get it?</p><p>K: only time will tell </p><p>Q: your mouths have touched indirectly hee hee </p><p>K: murder is not my last resort in your case</p><p>Q: you know you love me</p><p>K: sure :|</p><p>_+_+_+ </p><p> </p><p>“Oh my gosh, your mouths have touched indirectly! You’ve basically kissed him.” Rachel squeals from her spot on her bed. Blaine paces around her room in time with the music - a crackly old Shirelles record. </p><p>“Don’t be creepy.” Blaine cringes.</p><p>“It’s not being creepy. Maybe Quinn will be nice to you next!” </p><p>“I think you have a thing for her.” Blaine snickers.</p><p>“Shut up! I do not. I have as much of a thing for her as you have for Kurt. Popularity is a powerful aphrodisiac.” Rachel shrugs. </p><p>“You say that like I don’t have a huge thing for Kurt.” </p><p>“So you admit it!” Rachel exclaims, pointing at him. Blaine feels Cooper’s energy in the room. </p><p>“I guess I admit it.” Blaine admits. </p><p>“What are you going to do?” She rolls onto her back and kicks her legs. Blaine sits in her spinny desk chair, and spins in a circle. He catches himself on her desk, and pushes off again.</p><p>“I dunno.” He replies, spinning.</p><p>“I think there’s something weird about them. They’re so popular and perfect, and they haven’t had any shocking scandals. Like, they got popular and stayed that way just by existing and doing sports. But, hell, Kurt isn’t even the quarterback. He’s just the kicker.” Rachel ponders. Blaine stops spinning, and stares at her.</p><p>“Finally!” He yells. “Someone else thinks it’s weird! I’m going with either aliens or government spies.” Rachel ceases kicking, and cranes her neck back to look at him.</p><p>“Maybe not that weird. They’re hot, what else do you really need? People like people they can look at.” </p><p>“Personality? A velvety singing voice and an extensive bowtie collection?” Blaine suggests, starting up his spinning again. The chair squeaks loudly, and he’s almost worried he’ll fall over.</p><p>“Though I appreciate your whole old man meets movie musical singer thing, it’s not exactly the makeup of a popular boy. We’re barely a cog in the social machine, Blaine.”</p><p>“We’re the flap in front of the drainage pipe. Kurt and Quinn, they’re… they’re the on switch. The controlling element.” Blaine sighs, spinning even faster. The chair wobbles dangerously, but he just clings to the seat and keeps going. </p><p>“Though I would appreciate spending a day in their heads, I’m pretty sure there’s nothing but hot air in there. They’re not a cog either, they’re the shiny paint on the outside. I bet their parents love that they’re dating. If I dated a boy like Kurt, my dads would be thrilled.” Rachel grumbles.</p><p>“I’m gonna say, I think they’re smarter than you give them credit for. Even though they just hold hands and look at each other, Quinn can be horrifically mean and Kurt was… well, he was really nice and sociable. There’s gotta be something under those shallow exteriors.” The chair squeaks louder and wobbles harder, and Blaine is painfully dizzy. </p><p>“Believe me, I know about how mean Quinn can be. I was talking to Brittany and she came up and called me man hands out of nowhere. She hasn’t even seen my hands!” Rachel rants. The chair tilts too far to one side, and Blaine tumbles out and falls right on his ass. The chair follows shortly after, and hits the ground just as loudly as it had spun. It leaves a big scratch on Blaine’s ankle, which is totally going to suck tomorrow. Rachel whips around and races over to him to assess the damage. Ouch. </p><p>“It just looks like a scrape.” She determines. </p><p>“Astute. Do you have any bandaids?” Blaine cringes, clutching his ankle. </p><p>“Yeah. I’ll go get it. Be right back!” She runs out of the room, and Blaine sits in mild agony. He sees his bag, and realizes his water bottle is probably still cold. He reaches for it, drags the bag over, and plucks the water bottle from its pocket. He goes to take a sip, but feels something weird on the bottom of the bottle. </p><p>“What?” He mumbles to himself, flipping it over. Taped to the base of the bottle is a hastily-ripped piece of paper with a number scrawled on it.</p><p>“<em>(576) 555-2060</em>”. </p><p>“I’m back! Are you still alive?” Rachel rushes back in with a large bandaid, but Blaine is busy scrutinizing the paper. His brow is furrowed, and a bajillion thoughts (mostly variations of “huh?” And “phone number”) are racing through his head. “Blaine?”</p><p>“Uh… there was a phone number stuck to my water bottle.” Blaine says with confusion. Rachel plops onto the floor next to him, and replaces the paper with the bandaid. While he applies the bandaid, she inspects it.</p><p>“Do you think it was Kurt?” Rachel asks. Blaine smooths the bandaid on his leg, crumples the trash, and peers up at her.</p><p>“Maybe… but what if it’s all a big joke? Like, they’re going to prank me if I call.” Blaine worries. </p><p>“Who knows. I think you should call while I’m here for moral support.”</p><p>“You just want to hear what’s going on.” Blaine accuses, and Rachel gasps in mock offense. “Um, I’ll call.” </p><p>“Come sit on the bed.” Rachel prompts, grinning. Blaine does so. He clutches his phone in one hand and the phone number in the other and stares down at them for a moment. Does he really want to sacrifice his dignity for the small, small chance of it being something good? “If you don’t do it, I will.” </p><p>Blaine glares at her before punching in the number. He hovers above the call button, but he has a terrible gut feeling. His hands are shaking, and Rachel seems to think that this is the most exciting thing that could ever happen based on her wide eyes and alert posture.</p><p>“Beep!” He presses the button. </p><p>“Ring” his stomach drops.</p><p>“Ring” his shoulders tense.</p><p>“Ring” Rachel is biting her nails.</p><p>“Ring” he pulls the phone away to check if it’s still calling.</p><p>“Ring… Click.” The ringing stops, and Blaine hits Rachel’s shoulder. </p><p>“Hello?” A sweet voice rings on the other end. Blaine mouths “it’s him!” to Rachel, and she gasps and grabs his arm.</p><p>“Hi, I found this number stuck on my water bottle?” </p><p>“Oh, huh? Who is this?” </p><p>“Blaine Anderson?”</p><p>“Concussion Blaine?”</p><p>“The one and only.” </p><p>“Um… how did my phone number get taped to your water bottle?” </p><p>“I literally have no idea. I figured you might know. Um, hold on one second, sorry.” Blaine mutes the phone, and pries Rachel’s hand off of him. “You’re cutting off my circulation.”</p><p>“Sorry! I’m just so engaged.” She shrugs. Blaine unmutes the phone and puts it back to his ear.</p><p>“Sorry, I’m back.”</p><p>“Just… while we’re talking, would you want to grab a coffee together sometime? I still feel like I need to make it up to you.”</p><p>“You don’t have to, I’m not upset about it. I’m totally fine.”</p><p>“I’m going to feel guilty for the rest of my life if I don’t.”</p><p>“Okay, why not.”</p><p>“Lima Bean tomorrow after school?”</p><p>“That works for me. Is Quinn coming too?” Rachel jabs him in the arm and nods her head in questioning. Blaine waves his hand to dismiss her, and continues the conversation.</p><p>“It depends on the Cheerios’ practice schedule. Want a ride there?” Blaine thinks he hears a shout in the background from Kurt’s end of the line. </p><p>“Yeah. Where should I meet you?” </p><p>“The football field.”</p><p>“Cool! See you then.” He hangs up, and flops back on the bed. “Oh my god.”</p><p>“What?” Rachel yelps, her eyes boring holes through his face with their intense interest.</p><p>“I’m going to the Lima bean with Kurt tomorrow.” Blaine confesses. She screams, and almost falls off of the bed.</p><p>“Oh my god!” She squawks. “Oh my god! Blaine! This is like going to lunch with Patti. Are you kidding?” </p><p>“I don’t think it’s that big of a deal.” Blaine says, and Rachel smacks his arm.</p><p>“You are going to be commingling with McKinley high royalty, Blaine. You might be the key to getting the glee club out of the gutter. Act like it!” </p><p>“Sure.” </p><p>_+_+_+</p><p>Blaine thought his coffee platonic hang-out with Kurt would just be a nice end to his Wednesday. He didn’t anticipate that for the entire day leading up to it, he’d be thinking about it and stressing over the little things. What to wear? What if it really is a prank? Etc. He can barely pay attention in class, he’s distant and frazzled during lunch, and he has little to say during glee. It’s not like it’s a date or anything! The second the bell rings, he snatches his bag and speedwalks down to the field. The tension and anticipation he’d built up for the entire day leaves him jittery and buzzing as his feet sink into the dewy grass when he arrives. </p><p>“Hey, Blaine! Just a second.” Kurt shouts from the other end of the field. Quinn stands next to him, one hand intertwined in his and the other on her hip.</p><p>_+_+_+</p><p>A moment of Kurt </p><p> </p><p>“Don’t get too into it yet. We need to come up with a real plan.” Quinn hisses. Kurt nods and squeezes her hand.</p><p>“Don’t worry. I’m not going to do anything. It’s just us for now, nobody will suspect anything.” He attempts to calm her.</p><p>“We should kiss now.”</p><p>“Yeah.” Kurt frowns. He closes his lips and presses them against hers for a moment. It’s always the same, closed-mouth and quick. </p><p>“It never gets better, does it?” She sighs.</p><p>“No. I’ll text you later?” </p><p>“See you, K. I’m proud of you.” </p><p>_+_+</p><p>Blaine is astonished by how fast Kurt can run. It shouldn’t be a surprise, since his whole thing is that he can kick, but still. He gets from one end of the field to the other in less than half the time it would take Blaine (in his defense, his legs are shorter). </p><p>“Woah. Your eyes look so cool in this lighting” Kurt blurts out, and Blaine is briefly taken aback. “Sorry, that was weird.”</p><p>“Oh, no, thank you! I guess it’s golden hour right now, so…” Blaine blushes. He isn’t sure if this start is rocky or not, but it’s pretty good compared to their past interactions. Nobody is in pain (besides his little ankle scratch) or tears.</p><p>“Shall we go?”</p><p>“We shall.” They walk in silence to Kurt’s car - a shiny black navigator that makes Blaine’s old Mini Cooper look like scrap metal -  and Blaine climbs into the passenger seat.</p><p>“What do you want to listen to?” Kurt asks, and Blaine freezes. Music taste is so personal, and he isn’t prepared to reveal that part of himself to Kurt yet. More importantly, he doesn’t know what Kurt likes at all. For all he knows, he could exclusively listen to heavy metal and have a personal vendetta against Katy Perry. Though, looking at his expectant pale eyes and soft expression as Blaine “ummm”’s his way through shoving his bag at his feet and thinking of any music he knows, he highly doubts it. </p><p>He finally settles on a safe “what do you have?”</p><p>“Well there’s the radio, and with the magic of Spotify we have basically all of the music anybody could ask for. So no limits.” Kurt answers, which is entirely unhelpful. What does a straight man in the modern era listen to? Drake?</p><p>“Let’s do the radio.” Blaine decides. Kurt nods and turns the dial to some retro station, and Blaine exhales a quiet sigh of relief. Kurt Hummel is not a metalhead, and he does not have an adverse reaction to Stevie Wonder.</p><p>“Oh, I love this song!” Kurt exclaims, cranking up the volume. Blaine smiles and bobs his head with the music, but stops when Kurt starts to sing. It’s quiet, a slight “you are the sunshine of my life”, but it’s the most incredible thing he’s ever heard. He doesn’t realize he’s staring until Kurt says, “Do you want me to stop? Am I that bad?” with a chuckle.</p><p>“Oh, no! No, you’re incredible. I haven’t- I’ve never heard a voice like yours before.” Blaine stutters.</p><p>“Thanks.” Kurt almost-whispers. He clears his throat and starts singing again. Blaine wants to sing along too, but he opts for listening to Kurt instead. The song ends, and they pull into the Lima Bean parking lot. Only when Blaine steps out of the car does he realize that it’s dark outside. Kurt is checking something on his phone, so he walks around and opens the door for him. </p><p>“After you, sir.” He jokes.</p><p>“Why thank you.” Kurt grins. He shoves his phone back in his pocket and climbs out of the car. They walk to the front doors, and Kurt opens the door for Blaine. “I have to return the favor.” The melting snow makes Kurt’s skin look near ghostly. </p><p>“Is this a thing with you? Having to do something nice in return for nice things people do for you?” Blaine asks as they walk into the coffee shop and get in line. The warmth crashes over him like a wave and he’s grateful for it in the cold early-March weather. Kurt’s face is rosy from the biting chill, Blaine’s from the brief eye contact they made when he was noticing Kurt’s face. </p><p>“I guess so.” Kurt shrugs as they approach the counter.</p><p>“What can I get for you?” The cashier - nametag reading “Melanie” - asks. Her ponytail bounces with a tilt of her head, curls brushing her shoulder. </p><p>“I’ll have a nonfat mocha.” Kurt requests, tugging on the sleeves of his letterman jacket. </p><p>“A medium drip for me, please.” Blaine orders. Melanie punches the order into the register, and he notices her sparkly pink nails. Kurt rolls up the sleeves on his jacket. </p><p>“That’ll be $6.75” She states. Kurt starts to pull out his wallet, but in an act of uncharacteristic bravery Blaine places his hand on Kurt’s arm and says,</p><p>“No, let me get it.” </p><p>“Oh… okay.” Kurt responds. Blaine fishes 7 crisp dollar bills out of his wallet and hands them to Melanie, whose charm bracelet jangles as she opens the register and gives him his quarter. He drops the quarter in the tip jar and grabs his receipt, and she winks at him. Blaine smiles back gingerly, and speedwalks over to the farthest table. He sits down, and Kurt shoots him a look.</p><p>“What?”</p><p>“She was pretty. What was that? You should go for it.” Kurt questions, sliding into his own seat. Blaine gawks at him.</p><p>“Do you really not know?” Blaine asks, eyebrows raised.</p><p>“Know what?” So he really doesn’t know.</p><p>“Kurt, I’m…” </p><p>“One medium drip and nonfat mocha for Blaine!” Melanie yells from the bar. </p><p>“I’ll let you get it.” Kurt smirks. Blaine rises, grabs the drinks, and briskly walks away to avoid further interaction. He checks the cups and slides Kurt his. “So what don’t I know? Because I tend to think I know most things about most people in this school. All gossip leads to me.” </p><p>“I was saying that I’m gay, Kurt,” Blaine says exasperatedly. Kurt chokes on his drink and has to grab a napkin to make sure he doesn’t dribble it all over himself. “Is that a problem?” </p><p>“No, no it’s not. Not really.” Kurt coughs. “Just not what I expected you to say.” </p><p>“Not really?”</p><p>“Poor word choice on my part. It’s not an issue.” </p><p>“Just because you’re on the football team and so popular, I guess I just assumed…” </p><p>“I think we all learned not to make assumptions today.” Kurt jokes, wiping his mouth one final time. “We also learned not to breathe and drink.”<br/>
Blaine falls into peals of laughter, eyes tearing up. At the sight of Blaine, Kurt starts to laugh too. They laugh until they can’t breathe. Kurt’s laugh is the most incredible sound Blaine’s ever heard. Kurt’s eyes crinkle at the corners and his nose scrunches in the best way. It’s everything. </p><p>“Correction: you learned not to breathe and drink. I already knew that.” Blaine wheezes.</p><p>“My apologies,” Kurt quips. “You know, I don’t think I’ve ever had a gay friend before.”</p><p>“That you know of,” Blaine adds.</p><p>“That I know of.” Kurt parrots.</p><p>“So… does this make us friends? Just so you can check it off your bucket list, you know, ‘have a gay friend.’”</p><p>“Yeah, I guess it does.” </p><p>“Um…” Blaine hesitates before continuing, “so, this is fun, and I’m glad we’re officially friends even though we’ve only talked like… three times, but why me? I’m just some glee kid, and you’re, well, you’re you. Why all this? I keep worrying Quinn is going to come out of the bushes with a camera and slushie me.” Kurt tilts his head and frowns.</p><p>“I swear to you this is not a prank. I enjoyed the last few times we talked and I want to keep doing it, so that’s what I’m doing. Is that going to be a problem?”</p><p>“No! No, I like talking to you too.”</p><p>“A toast to friendship?” Kurt raises his coffee cup. Blaine clinks his against it.</p><p>“A toast to Kurt Hummel’s first gay friend.” </p><p>_+_+_+</p><p>A moment of Kurt: To Quinn</p><p>K: positive </p><p>Q: you’re pregnant? I thought the whole point of this was so that wouldn’t happen.</p><p>K: ha ha. Ha ha ha. </p><p>Q: ha ha</p><p>K: positive as in he told me he’s gay</p><p>Q: what are you going to do?</p><p>K: gather intel </p><p>Q: intel?</p><p>K: you know what I mean</p><p>Q: oh, intel</p><p>Q: isn’t that cheating?</p><p>K: if that’s cheating then you’ve been doing a whole lot of cheating, Q</p><p>Q: I stand corrected </p><p>Q: good luck, K</p><p>K: thanks also tell Melanie I say thank you </p><p>Q: she already appreciates getting to deviate from her usual boring work schedule</p><p>_+_+_+</p><p>“HE WHAT?” Rachel screams through the phone. Blaine flips the page in his math textbook and adjusts his phone’s position on his bed.</p><p>“He said we’re friends.” </p><p>“Friends! Friends with Kurt Hummel! That doesn’t just happen to people like us, Blaine. I bet he can’t even name one showtune. Has he ever seen Cats? Les Mis? Wicked? Hell, West Side Story?” Rachel rants. Blaine rolls his eyes, even though she can’t see him.</p><p>“He told me it’s okay, and I choose to trust him. You don’t know him at all, Rachel.” </p><p>“I know he’s dating Quinn Fabray, that Finn Hudson is his stepbrother, and that he can climb the rope in P.E the fastest because of his limber body and muscular arms. How much do you know, hm?” He can hear Rachel crossing her arms.</p><p>“A lot more than that, sorry to tell you.” </p><p>“You have to bring me along next time you hang out with him, I want to know what it’s like to fraternize with the elite.”</p><p>“I don’t think so.” He hears a click, and the dial tone sounds. “Rachel?” She’d hung up on him. Moments later, his phone begins to ring again. He initially thinks it’s Rachel calling back, but Tina’s caller ID flashes on the screen. </p><p>“Hey tay-tay!” He greets.</p><p>“A little birdy told me that you and Kurt Hummel are besties now. Care to explain?” </p><p>“Is that what Rachel said?”</p><p>“Yes.” </p><p>“We just went out for coffee. We are decidedly friends, but you still hold the BFFFL spot in my heart.”</p><p>“Aw, thanks Blainey-days.”</p><p>“He didn’t know I was gay, apparently.”</p><p>“Astonishing.”</p><p>“I know!”</p><p>“Is he blind?”</p><p>“Come on now.”</p><p>“Now that I know I’m not being replaced I can sleep. Goodnight, B.”</p><p>“Night, Tina.”</p><p>_+_+_+</p><p>Blaine thought going out for coffee with Kurt Hummel once was enough excitement to satisfy him for the rest of his life. Though the sun seems to shine brighter on Friday, he wants to leave it at that. Couldn’t he just keep up his usual routine? When glee club ends on Friday and he walks with Tina to his car as usual, and sees Kurt Hummel leaning up against it (typing on his phone, one leg bent and shoe pressed against the door), he is completely disoriented.</p><p>“Um, Kurt?” Blaine approaches him tentatively, Tina trailing close behind. Kurt looks up from his phone and pockets it, and a wide grin stretches across his face.</p><p>“Blaine! Hey!” He greets, like he wasn’t expecting to see him at his own car in the school parking lot.</p><p>“Hi! But, uh, what are you doing on my car?” </p><p>“I was waiting for you.” Kurt shrugs. Tina takes a few hesitant steps forward.</p><p>“Wh… why?” Blaine feels like he missed something. </p><p>“Didn’t I…” he pulls his phone out again and scrolls for a moment. “Oh. Ugh!” He exclaims. “I typed in the text but I didn’t actually send it. I was going to tell you that Quinn and I are hanging out at my place if you want to tag along, and I’d wait at your car to check in. Ha! Oops.” </p><p>“Okay, sorry,” Tina interjects. “Why would you want a random friend to come hang out with you and your girlfriend? That’s super weird. Listen, Kurt Hummel, I’m obligated to like you because of the way this school works. And I want to! But I also want you to know that if you ever so much as lay a finger on Blaine, I will not hesitate to tell Mr. Schue and have you ripped from the inside out. Got it?” </p><p>“Tina!” Blaine grits his teeth and smacks her arm. “I’m so sorry.” </p><p>“Tina Cohen-Chang, I could ruin your already mediocre reputation in two seconds. Don’t try me.” Kurt threatens, though there’s something shaky and sad behind it- like a little boy calling out to see if there’s a monster in a dark hallway at night while he’s walking to the bathroom. </p><p>“I’m known for saying the wrong thing.” She mutters, turns on her heel, and struts away. </p><p>“I’m so sorry. She’s just looking out for me.” Blaine sighs.</p><p>“It’s fine, not the worst I’ve heard. Jealousy is a terrible affliction.” </p><p>“Don’t I know it. So, why my car?”</p><p>“I need to give you my address.” Kurt explains. “Hold out your arm.” Blaine stretches his arm out, and Kurt pulls a felt tip pen out of his pocket. He grabs his arm and scrawls his address. When Kurt releases his arm, his skin tingles where his hand lay.</p><p>“Uh… alright! Well, I’ll see you there.”</p><p>“Fantastic.”</p><p>_+_+_+</p><p>“All I’m saying is that they should not let girls like her on the Cheerios, Kurt! She’s like 700 pounds and so annoying.” Quinn whines.</p><p>“And all I’m saying is that her body type is the same as yours, for one, and I don’t think Coach Sue considers personality in her process. Clearly. Also, what have I told you about body shaming?” Kurt defends. Blaine sits and watches like they’re animals in a zoo, and he’s outside the glass. Though, a part of him feels like it’s the other way around.</p><p>“How would you feel if they let a kid in a wheelchair on the football team?” Quinn asks, crossing her arms. Kurt slumps down on the couch.</p><p>“I dunno, he could be like a human battering ram.” Blaine chimes. He can see the gears in their heads turning as they consider it. </p><p>“I’ll give you that one,” Quinn says. Blaine does a little celebratory fist pump, which Kurt apparently thinks is the funniest thing on the entire planet according to his sharp laugh. Butterflies flutter in Blaine’s stomach at the sound of it. Kurt slides down the couch a little more. “You’re gonna fall. You always do.” He looks up at her from his spot, his chin connected with his chest. </p><p>“Fine.” Kurt shifts so that he’s lying down, head on Blaine’s lap. The second his head hits his leg, Blaine’s eyes widen in surprise. Voluntary contact? Voluntary contact from Kurt Hummel? Kurt Hummel lying in his lap? Huh?</p><p>“At least that won’t hurt your neck.” Quinn scoffs.</p><p>“That was a fluke.”</p><p>“‘Oh Q, my neck hurts! What in the world could I have done to it? Oh!’” Quinn mocks, speaking in her head voice with a slight vibrato. </p><p>“I do not talk like that! Right, Blaine?” Kurt looks up at him, and they make eye contact. Blaine’s breath hitches in his throat at the sight of Kurt’s sweet face staring expectantly at him.</p><p>“Not really.” Blaine guesses. Kurt raises his arms in the air and exclaims,</p><p>“See! You have a skewed view of reality, Q.” </p><p>“Don’t we all? We’re teenagers.” Quinn quips.</p><p>“Touché,” Kurt says. “Want to put on some music?” </p><p>“Sure. What do you want to listen to? And don’t you dare say Wicked, because I don’t want to hear you sing ‘Defying Gravity’ and talk about the goddamn jellybean ball or whatever again.” Quinn asks. </p><p>“Jellicle ball. But that’s Cats.” Blaine corrects. Kurt looks up at Blaine again with that warm, innocent expression.</p><p>“You know it?”</p><p>“I’m in glee club, Kurt. Of course I know musicals.” Blaine chuckles. “I didn’t realize you did, though.” Within an hour of being at his house, Kurt had already shattered every expectation he’d had of him. He’d initiated contact, he likes musicals, he wasn’t a complete and total asshole like everyone else on the football team, and his couch is plaid. Plaid! Well, that wasn’t really something that he’d had any expectations for. He just really likes it. </p><p>“Oh! Speaking of clubs, are you coming to the game tomorrow?” Kurt asks. </p><p>“I dunno. Should I?” Blaine replies, adjusting his bow tie. He doesn’t know why he asks, because he always goes. Quinn laughs.</p><p>“‘Should I?’ That’s too good.” She mocks. Kurt sits up and shoots her a look. “I see why you want to- why you’re keeping him around.” Kurt lays his head back down.</p><p>“Yes, you should.” He says. Quinn turns over in the armchair so that her legs are draped over the armrests. “If Finn sees you like that when he comes home he’s gonna throw a fit.” Kurt gestures at her.</p><p>“Whatever.” She shrugs. If Finn comes home while Blaine is there, he’ll be even more out of his element. He feels like he was thrust into a teen movie, but he’s still in the real world mindset ala “Teen Beach Movie”. He notices how Quinn’s cheer skirt drapes in layers over the side of the chair and how neat the stitching on the white satin inside of Kurt’s letterman jacket is. When they’re like this, they don’t feel so much like aliens save for a few odd glances and judges here and there. They feel like people, which is weird for Blaine. He sees the popular kids in the hall every day, and they’re never like this- so relaxed, so kind. Kurt has always been an enigma, but Quinn has a reputation for being a little bit horrible to everybody (but it’s okay, because she’s head cheerleader). Both always seem so stiff and guarded.</p><p>“I’ll go to the game.” Blaine decides. Kurt’s eyes light up and a grin spreads across his face.</p><p>“Great!” He exclaims, tugging on the sleeves of his jacket again. “You know, you glee people should really be more involved. Maybe then you’d get bullied less. Like, if you were understood.” Kurt grabs the bowl of blueberries from the table, rests it on his stomach, and pops one in his mouth. Blaine can feel his jaw muscles against his leg when he chews, and it’s really strange.</p><p>“They bully us because they think we’re all gay, when really is only me and- well, just me, I guess.” Blaine argues. Kurt grabs a giant handful of blueberries and shoves them into his mouth.</p><p>“He’s eating so he doesn’t have to admit that you’re right,” Quinn smirks. Kurt throws a blueberry at her, and it bounces off of her leg and rolls across the floor. “I’m only being nice to you because Kurt’s making me. My theory is that he feels like he owes it to you just a little too much after that concussion thing and messing up our carefully crafted social hierarchy was the best thing he could think of.” She examines her nails, and Kurt throws another blueberry at her.</p><p>“I’m right here. I can hear you!” Kurt points out, mouth full. Blaine concludes that chewing with your mouth full isn’t a glee club problem, but an everyone problem. “And for the record, I don’t have a problem with gay people. And neither does Quinn. She has a soul in there somewhere.” She picks the second blueberry from her lap and throws it at Kurt. Blaine adds points in favor of robots on his list of potential causes for their strange behavior, as only robots would have to justify that they have souls- especially if they didn’t actually have them. He’d say ghosts too, but he can very much feel Kurt’s solid head and body heat against him. He’s also not sure if a ghost could body check him into a trashcan. </p><p>“I’d hope so.” Blaine remarks. He’s about to add something when he hears a door open and heavy footsteps. Quinn quickly adjusts herself so that she’s sitting normally, and Kurt lifts his head off of Blaine’s lap. </p><p>“Finn’s home.” Kurt whispers to Blaine. He isn’t sure why this is such a big thing, considering that they live together and all. +1 to government secret.</p><p>“Hey guys!” Finn shouts from the kitchen. </p><p>“He has a routine. He’s going to get chips from the kitchen and come in here. He’s going to be confused when he sees you.” Kurt explains as he searches for the blueberry on the ground with his eyes. “There it is.” He gets it and places it on the table. </p><p>“What’s going on? No music toda-“ Finn lumbers into the room, but stops when he sees Blaine. Blaine gives a little wave, and Finn’s face twists. “What are you doing here?” </p><p>“I invited him over, Finn.” Kurt glares at him. The tension is strange, considering the harmless (at most misguided) nature of the question. Finn shifts on his feet, coughs, and leaves. Quinn and Kurt share another look, and Blaine is back to feeling like he’s been put into a world other than his own. Nothing makes sense! Blaine, gay glee club Blaine, sitting in THE Kurt Hummel’s living room. Gay glee club Blaine brushing shoulders with top runner for prom king, kicker for the football team, most popular boy in school, shockingly openly not homophobic, has only known Blaine for like 3 weeks Kurt Hummel. </p><p>Kurt stands up and runs after Finn, yelling for him to wait. Quinn shares a grimace with him- the first of the looks he’s understood the context for- and looks up to the ceiling.</p><p>“Seems like they went upstairs.” She says. Blaine looks up as well, and he hears more stomping and muffled shouting. “His footsteps are like a bell on a cat. Kurt is so light on his feet, but Finn sounds like a sumo wrestler. You can always tell where he is.” </p><p>“Do you know what’s going on?” Blaine asks. Quinn shrugs.</p><p>“No idea.” They listen together in silence for a moment, both trying to make out what they’re arguing about. Blaine reaches over and grabs a blueberry from the ceramic bowl. </p><p>_+_+_</p><p>A moment of Kurt.</p><p>“What the hell is your problem?” Kurt yells, stepping in front of Finn. Finn clutches his bag of chips and attempts to move around Kurt, but he’s too big.</p><p>“Why is he here? Be honest. He’s not really your normal crowd.” Finn sneers, and Kurt groans.</p><p>“Seriously? You’re always pulling that ‘maybe we should expand our circles’ bullshit and now that I am ‘expanding my circle’ you don’t like it? He’s here because we’re friends.” Kurt is gesticulating wildly, but he doesn’t care enough to stop it. </p><p>“I know you and Quinn, Kurt. You can be so backhanded sometimes. I mean, you hear what she says to Rachel Berry.” </p><p>“I really do not care about all the glee club drama she involves herself in. I know Rachel has had a weird thing for you since freshman Spanish and it forces you to think about her all of the time but fortunately not all of us are in that position. I just- he’s nice. He’s real. Nobody up here is real and when I crashed into him I knew I wouldn’t be able to let- I knew I wanted to be his friend.” Kurt rants. Finn furrows his eyebrows and crinkles his chip bag.</p><p>“What was that? You said you wouldn’t be able to let something.” He squints. Kurt rolls his eyes.</p><p>“Just ignore that. I misspoke.” Kurt dismisses with a wave of his hand. “Can you please come down and be a nice host?” </p><p>“Isn’t he the uh… gay one?” </p><p>“How was I the last person to know this…” Kurt matters to himself. “Yeah, so?” </p><p>Finn opens his mouth to speak, but he’s cut off by the sound of a Madonna song echoing against the walls and a loud laugh from downstairs- Quinn’s laugh. Kurt thinks it’s “Open Your Heart.” Correction, he knows it’s “Open Your Heart.” He wants to laugh at the irony of the title in relation to his current situation. </p><p>“I’m going down there to have fun with my friends. You can join me if you want.” He turns on his heels and walks down the stairs, but he stops at the sight when he rounds the corner. </p><p>_+_+</p><p>Quinn’s cheer skirt swishes to the beat, and Blaine’s patent leather dress shoes slide against the floor as he twists. There’s nothing to bond people like the magic of song and dance. Quinn’s laugh rings louder than the music blaring from her phone as he spins her.</p><p>“Open your heart to me, baby!” Blaine sings as he shimmies his shoulders. As he comes up, he pauses. Kurt leans against the wall, grinning like crazy. The song ends, and “Frozen” starts. </p><p>“Kurt! Come dance with us!” Quinn calls over the music. Though he isn’t attracted to her, Blaine can see the appeal of the cheer skirts. He almost wishes he had one just for how fun it looks to dance in them. Instead, he’s restrained to his skinny jeans. Maybe some tassels…?</p><p>“I don’t really feel like dancing.” Kurt dismisses. </p><p>“I haven’t had this much fun in a while.” Quinn giggles. Blaine finally feels like he’s in his element. Music is a common bond among peoples, among races, among religions, and in this case, among Cheerio(s) and glee-clubber(s). Their worlds have crashed into each other, just through the swing of their hips and the sound of Madonna’s voice. He thinks about how Tina would be so, so jealous, and that he’s totally going to call her about this the second he gets home.</p><p>They dance until Kurt’s dad (who, after a very awkward interaction, Blaine finds is named Burt) arrives home from the garage. He compliments Blaine’s handshake and tells him to “take it easy” when he leaves. </p><p>As Blaine drives home, he’s snapped out of his euphoric stupor. He’d been whisked away by Kurt, so he doesn’t really have time to fully process the interaction until now. Quinn Fabray has verbally assaulted most of his friends, but her company was so <em>enjoyable</em>. And Kurt put his head on his lap, which is now the highlight of his entire life. He realizes that he now has to attend a football game with a purpose instead of just watching for the game itself, so he figures he’ll invite Tina to come since she likes to watch Mike anyways. </p><p>_+_+_</p><p>“So let me get this straight, he whisked you away so you could… eat blueberries and dance with his girlfriend?” Tina asks during their phone call.</p><p>“Basically. I had a good time, but it was weird.” Blaine says as he rinses the gel out of his hair, his phone perched precariously on the edge of his sink. “I need to ask a favor of you, though.” He shuts off the sink and pulls his towel off of the hook. “Will you come with me to the game tomorrow?”</p><p>“You always go, why do you need someone with you?” </p><p>“I was formally invited this time. It’s scary.” Blaine justifies, drying off his hair and hanging the towel up again.</p><p>“Yeah, sure. It’s not like I have other plans.” </p><p>_+_+_+</p><p>A moment of Kurt </p><p>He runs on his treadmill just to feel his calves burn. He can’t hear his feet pounding the worn-grey conveyor belt over his music, which is playing just a little too loud. He doesn’t even bother turning on the lights, the only illumination being the light leaking in from the streetlights outside. He should worry that his dad is going to come yell at him again for the volume, but he doesn’t really care. He’s too tuned in to his body, too aware of the sweat rolling down his forehead and the tears rolling down his cheeks. He forces himself to breathe harsh breaths, to press the speed button again, to move his legs faster, just to feel something else. Anything else. </p><p>_+_+_+</p><p>Blaine is abruptly awoken by his phone ringing early on Saturday morning. He hangs up and turns over, his still-asleep mind registering it as his alarm. </p><p>_+_+_+</p><p>Blaine arrives at school at 5 o’clock on the dot on Saturday, with Tina and a “Congratulations!” card with a golden retriever on it in tow. He really hopes they win so that he doesn’t have to scrawl “for your loss” on it before he gives it to Kurt. He has a sharpie in his coat pocket, though, just in case. They sit down in the middle of the cold bleachers among the parents, teachers, and students mingling about. The air buzzes with anticipation and the fervor of any football game. The Cheerios are clumped in front of the fence, and they look like they’re going to freeze in their uniforms. Blaine mentions this to Tina, but she brushes it off. Something about it being “their choice” or “empowerment”. He just wants to give the girl whose lips are turning blue his coat. When he exhales, he can see his breath twist in the air. </p><p>The football players run onto the field, and the excitement increases tenfold. For the first time, Blaine understands that it’s for more than the thrill of the game. This time he has someone to be there for. Now, as he watches Kurt Hummel take his place on the bench, it’s not creepy as he felt it was before. He sees Kurt wave at Quinn, who bounds over and presses a kiss to his cheek. Coach Sylvester yells something at her, and she rushes back over to the Cheerios. </p><p> </p><p>The game goes off without a hitch. During halftime, Blaine swears he sees Quinn wink at him from her position at the top of the pyramid, but Tina says he’s imagining things and that she’s just blinking. Kurt kicks the ball flawlessly in each kickoff and eventually scores the three extra points McKinley needs to win. It shouldn’t be a surprise because pretty much every game ends that way, but it’s still very exciting. Plus, it gives Blaine a chance to admire how good Kurt’s thighs look in those pants. </p><p>At one point, he whispers “remind me to add ‘Mad About the Boy’ to my sheet music collection later.” To Tina, to which she replies,</p><p>“How is that relevant right now?” so he takes the sharpie out of his pocket and writes it on the inside of his wrist. As he’s examining how the ink bleeds into the creases in his skin, he misses why everyone cheers. The new ink contrasts with Kurt’s faded address. </p><p> At the end of the game, the Cheerios and football players run off to their respective locker rooms to shower and change. The crowd is elated from McKinley’s win, and Blaine rides the high all the way down to the edge of the field, where he waits for Kurt to emerge. Apparently a third of the school had the same idea as him, as there are way too many people around. Though he has his arm linked with Tina’s, he keeps bumping shoulders with people anxious to meet whoever they came for. He flips the card around in his hands as he’s jostled, glad that he didn’t have to change it and write on the dog. It has a little balloon! It would be a crime to deface it. </p><p>“Oh! I think I see him!” Tina exclaims, pointing. Blaine follows her finger to a tall figure that seems miles away, letterman-jacket clad and hair meticulously styled as ever. “You’ve got it bad, Blainey-days.”</p><p>“Don’t even get me started. It would be stupid to go over there while he’s surrounded by all of his popular friends, right?” </p><p>“So, so stupid. That’s why we’re going to wait until he sees you.” Tina declares. So, they stand. As the crowd thins they’re able to unlink arms and move apart, but they remain in that spot for what feels like forever. In actuality, it’s only about 15 minutes, but that’s a long time to stand and wait in the cold. Eventually, everyone of significance besides Kurt, Quinn, and Finn has scattered. Only then does Blaine’s stomach start to flip.</p><p>“Okay. I’m going in.” Blaine breathes.</p><p>“Good luck, soldier.” Tina pats him on the shoulder. He begins to walk towards Kurt with his head down, but unfortunately the universe has other plans. Or, rather, Kurt has other plans, as Kurt starts walking towards him at the same time and they meet in the middle. By meet in the middle, it obviously means to crash into each other head-on. Once again, Blaine is on the ground. Luckily, his head is spared in exchange for the mild bruising he knows will show up on his ass and some scratches on his palms. He looks up at Kurt while he gets his bearings, whose eyes are comically wide. He gasps and crouches down. </p><p>“I am so sorry. Oh my god I am SO SORRY.” Kurt apologizes, breathily and quietly. “I- um, here.” He holds out his hands and pulls Blaine up. Blaine brushes off his pants and smiles.</p><p>“Hey, no hard feelings. That was totally my fault, I wasn’t looking where I was going.” Blaine shrugs. </p><p>Unsure of what to do with himself, Blaine holds out the mostly-undamaged card to Kurt. “I got this for you.” As Kurt takes the card, their hands brush, and Blaine’s stomach flips again.</p><p>“‘Congratulations!’” Kurt reads. “This is so cute!” Blaine could say the same for Kurt’s toothy grin at the golden retriever with the balloon plastered on the card. “‘Good job, congratulations on winning the game. Sincerely, Blaine.’ I can’t say I’m not flattered, but how did you know we were going to win?” Kurt asks with a tilt of his head. Blaine pulls the sharpie out of his pocket.</p><p>“I brought this in case you lost. I was going to write ‘for your loss’ on it.” Blaine explains. As he says it out loud, it sounds kind of stupid. Kurt falling into peals of laughter doesn’t really help his case either.</p><p>“Congratulations for your loss? Oh Blaine, that’s… that’s something.” Kurt chortles. A blush spreads over Blaine’s cheeks and he rubs a hand over his face, and Kurt pockets the card.</p><p>“Yeah… um, good thing you didn’t lose.” Blaine smiles nervously. </p><p>“Thanks. You know, nobody’s ever gotten me a card after a game before. Normally we just go out for pizza, and that detriment to my diet is reward enough.” Kurt jokes. Blaine notices that Kurt is rubbing his hands together to keep them warm, and his nose is turning red. </p><p>“There’s a first time for everything.” He considers if he wants to proceed. “You look really cold. I have a spare jacket in my car if you want.” Blaine suggests. Kurt’s eyes widen again, and he looks back at Quinn. There’s some silent exchange that he can’t fully understand (telepathic, perhaps? Probably not.) before Kurt turns back around and nods,</p><p>“Yes, I’m going to die of hypothermia.” </p><p>“Let me go tell Tina. We can even hang out in there with the heat on if you have time.”</p><p>“I definitely have time.” </p><p>Blaine jogs over to Tina, who looks at him expectantly. He explains the situation, and she (in true Tina fashion) begins to make a scene.</p><p>“Oh my god, Blaine!” She gasps. “That’s amazing. Perfect. Get some!” He jokingly hits her arm to shut her up. </p><p>“Stop, you sound like Rachel.” He whispers to her. She scoffs, and says,</p><p>“As if. I’m gonna go talk to Mike.”</p><p>_+_+_+</p><p>Kurt Hummel is in his car. THE Kurt Hummel is in Blaine’s passenger seat, wrapped in HIS jacket, warming his hands on HIS heater, listening to and singing along to HIS Birdy CD on low volume (<em>”All you never say is if you love me so all I’ll never know is if you want me oh”.</em> The irony is not lost on him), talking about the football game that he INVITED him to. </p><p>“I love your car. It’s so cozy.” Kurt says quietly, pulling on the sleeves of Blaine’s puffy jacket. </p><p>“Thank you.” Blaine responds. He wants to add, “I love your voice,” but he feels it may be too forward. He knows Kurt thinks nothing of this, which is the worst part. What seems so huge to Blaine is probably just a casual thing to Kurt, who most likely feels that he’s just hanging out in some not-popular kid’s car so he doesn’t freeze. It’s nothing. </p><p>“Okay, I know this is totally out of the blue and please forgive me if I’m overstepping, but I have a question for you.” Kurt declares quickly and nervously. Blaine’s heart leaps into his throat. </p><p>“Go for it!” He says, unsure of how he managed to sound so confident. </p><p>“I’ve been…curious, I guess… about this since you told me that you’re gay.” Blaine’s deep-set worry that Kurt is going to end up being a secret homophobe starts to bubble to the surface. “What was it like coming out? Here, I mean? I’m so sc- I’ve always wondered what it’s like.” Kurt asks. In the faint light from his car ceiling, Blaine can see nervousness encompassing Kurt’s expression. He looks like he’s going to pass out. But he knows he has to put aside his major crush for now, because there’s clearly something going on. Though, he tells himself that it’s probably just pure curiosity as a result of never having had a gay friend (that he knows of) prior to Blaine. </p><p>“I’m gonna be honest, it wasn’t easy. My parents… well, my mom was pretty much fine with it. My dad didn’t take it well. He tried to build a car with me because he thought getting my hands dirty would turn me straight. Can you believe that? He’s kind of mellowed out since then, he tolerates it now. But my brother was cool about it, but he lives in LA. At school, that was a whole other story. I… this is hard to talk about. It was my sophomore year, and I had just come out. There was a Sadie Hawkins dance and I asked the only other out boy at school that I knew. We were waiting for his dad to pick us up and these three guys… they beat the crap out of us. I transferred to Dalton, and I loved it there. Everyone was so accepting and wonderful, and they had an enforced no-tolerance anti-bullying policy. My dad got a better job here so we had to move, which is why I’m not still there. Here… well, it’s better than at Westerville ‘cause all of my ribs are intact. I can’t say there’s nothing, Karofsky and Azimio are particularly cruel. But I feel like there’s potential for my life to not suck once I get out of here. So, uh, that’s what it was like for me.” Blaine explains. When he finishes monologuing, he glances at Kurt to see tears streaming down his cheeks. It’s more like a fountain, really, because that boy is crying like he was the one being beaten at that Sadie Hawkins dance. “Oh, Kurt. I-“</p><p>“I’m so sorry you had to go through that. You’re such a good person. Nobody deserves that.” Kurt sobs. He looks so small and vulnerable curled up and wrapped in jackets, like a little kid. Blaine doesn’t know what to do with himself. He reaches out and grabs his hand to comfort him, and Kurt squeezes back shakily. Blaine crosses “robot” off of his mental list for good. Kurt inhales and wipes his eyes with the back of his free hand. “I’m sorry.” </p><p>“No, don’t apologize. It’s not really a fun story. I’m okay. You’re okay.” Blaine attempts to calm him. He feels like he’s in the bathroom all over again.</p><p>“Thank you for telling me. It means a lot, more than you know.” Kurt sniffles. His breathing evens, and the tears slow. “Can I ask you one more thing? Since we’re here? Another thing I’m curious about.” </p><p>“Yes, anything.” Blaine nods. He’s sure that Kurt isn’t secretly plotting against him at this point, because who would cry like that for a long-running prank?</p><p>“What’s it like to kiss a boy?” Kurt questions. If Blaine thought his heart had leapt into his throat before, he wasn’t prepared for this. He doesn’t know when he stopped breathing until he starts again. </p><p>“Well, um…” he thinks about Sebastian and the mediocre kisses they’d shared in his room before Dalton curfew. He remembers that he has to be objective, because “good” wouldn’t mean much to someone who has only kissed girls, so he compares it to that weird experimental kiss with Rachel. It’s dryer, he decides, but it just feels like it means more. That might’ve been a “Sebastian doesn’t like the way chapstick feels” issue and not a boy thing. So he stumbles his way through an explanation. “Compared to a girl, I guess it just feels like it means more. Like… uh… it’s rougher. It’s hard to explain.” Kurt stares at him, his tears have stopped. </p><p>“Can you show me?” Kurt asks so quietly that Blaine isn’t sure he hears correctly. </p><p>“What?” He squeaks.</p><p>“Show me what it’s like. Kiss me… please.” The intensity of Kurt’s gaze pierces Blaine’s entire being.</p><p>“Are you sure?”</p><p>“Yes. Blaine…”</p><p> Blaine feels like he’s going in slow motion as he nods and leans over the center console of his tiny car. He cups Kurt’s soft face, and their lips meet. The world stops. </p><p>_+_+_+</p><p>A moment of Kurt </p><p> </p><p>The world stops. </p><p> </p><p>_+_+_+</p><p>They pull apart for a moment, and Kurt just looks into his eyes and breathes. He looks so lost, yet like he’s come to a revelation. He reaches his hand up and pulls Blaine in for another, more intense kiss. Blaine didn’t know that it was possible to feel every human emotion at once until this moment. He’s thrilled that this is happening, but confused, but mostly just thinking about Kurt. Kurt’s mouth on his. Kurt is kissing him. THE Kurt Hummel is kissing HIM in HIS car ON PURPOSE. When they pull apart again, Kurt looks away and smiles. Blaine is too dumbfounded to do anything at all.</p><p>“Wow.” Kurt whispers. “That… wow.” </p><p>“Was that okay?” Blaine isn’t really sure what to say or do with himself.</p><p>“That’s what it’s like.” Kurt murmurs, seemingly on a different plane of existence or something. “That was… that was everything. Like, wow.” Blaine grins too, though he’s confident he’s going to wake up in a few moments and it’ll be Saturday morning, and this will have all been a dream. Usually he doesn’t get this far, though. </p><p>“Glad I could…” Blaine starts to make a joke, but he can’t finish. He’s engulfed by feeling. </p><p>“We have to kiss again.” Kurt blurts.</p><p>“Have to?”</p><p>“You don’t want to?”  </p><p>“No! I really do.” Blaine sighs, and he leans in. They kiss. And kiss. And kiss. And kiss. It's all warm. Just feeling.<br/>
Birdy is telling them to shine, if your heart tells you to then who are you to question it.</p><p>Unfortunately, Blaine is shocked out of his kiss-blinded haze when he remembers that there are people out there waiting for them. Specifically, Kurt’s girlfriend. He knows it’ll totally ruin the moment if he brings it up, but he’s pretty good at ruining moments.</p><p>“I don’t want to be an instrument in cheating, Kurt.” Blaine states plainly when they separate. Kurt smiles, which isn’t the reaction he was expecting at all. </p><p>“Quinn knows I’m gay. I haven’t… she’s the only one that knows. Besides you.” Kurt sighs. </p><p>“Huh?”</p><p>“I’ve known for a while. I joined the football team to make my dad happy, and I started getting popular and realized that I genuinely enjoy it, and it just spiraled from there.” </p><p>“But what about Quinn?” </p><p>“She got pregnant freshman year.” Kurt says curtly.</p><p>“You-“ Blaine is really confused. </p><p>“Not mine, I’d never. Puckerman’s. We started dating sophomore year so people wouldn’t think I’m gay and so boys wouldn’t try to get with her, and in exchange we kind of got really popular. It’s worked pretty well up until this point.” Kurt explains, and Blaine is once again dumbfounded. He’d thought Kurt was a pointless straight crush up until 20 minutes ago! “But when you came here I sort of… well, honestly, I’m crazy about you. And crashing into you was completely an accident, but I realized it gave me a chance to spend more time with you. I really don’t know anyone else that’s out, but I’m really not… confident enough, I guess, to come out myself. I’ve been feeling so much lately and I’ve had nobody to talk to for so long… I started to doubt everything I’ve known about myself. But this… now I know. Sorry, I’m kind of in shock.” Kurt’s eyes start to water again, and Blaine moves to grab his hand again. This time, it’s more sure.</p><p>“I… wow. Um… I don’t know what to say. What does this mean? For us?” </p><p>“I’d like to keep doing this. This us thing. If y- if you don’t mind.” A lone tear slips down Kurt’s cheek. Blaine doesn’t know how he could possibly say no.</p><p>“You shouldn’t ask that after inflating my ego so much. Yeah, I would too. I do think you should come out sometime, though.” Blaine puts his other hand over Kurt’s. His smile betrays his tears, because he looks like he was just told he won the lottery.</p><p>“You would?” </p><p>“I would. From now on, please be honest with me. I still feel like I’m in a weird dream.” Blaine chuckles.</p><p>“I promise this is real.” </p><p>THE Kurt Hummel likes HIM. THE Kurt Hummel wants to be with him. Sure winner for prom king, football star, 100% gay, outrageously handsome Kurt Hummel. </p><p>They wait until Kurt doesn’t look like a wreck to leave the car, and based on the look Quinn shoots him it seems like she knows what happened. Tina, however, couldn’t be more clueless. For the entire drive back to her house to drop her off, she won’t stop asking what they talked about. The answer of “the game” won’t satiate her, but he doesn’t care enough to fight. He just needs to get home and make sure he’s not actually dreaming (because he has absolutely had this dream before). </p><p>This is real.</p><p>_+_+_</p><p>On Monday, after their decisive “boundaries at school” phone conversation on Sunday (“act the same as before. We didn’t stop to talk in the hallways even when we were just friends and we didn’t sit with each other at lunch”), he thinks it’s going to be the same as it was. Initially he was a little sad about it, because he really wants to spend time with Kurt, but he comes to understand. He isn’t sure if Kurt comes to the same conclusion, though. Every time they pass each other in the hall Kurt’s shoulder brushes his and he breathes a careful “sorry” as he glides forth with Quinn on his arm. This happens way too many times to be an accident. </p><p>It’s at lunch when it really goes down.</p><p>Well, not <em>really</em>.</p><p>_+_+_</p><p>Blaine stares down at his grey sludge (meat? Vegetables? Who knows!) as he trudges away from the lunch line. He doesn’t know how it’s legal to serve this to children when it hardly looks prison grade. He feels a striking sense of déjà vu as he glances at the popular table to see Kurt and Quinn feeding each other some pastry thing and giggling gleefully. Except for this time, he knows more. He knows that they’re eating leftover asparagus feuilleté that Kurt made with his dad on Sunday. He knows what Kurt’s lips feel like on his. He doesn’t realize he’s staring until Kurt steals a furtive glance at him and accidentally makes eye contact. It’s small, but at the same time, it’s not. Kurt’s eyes widen and he turns his head back to Quinn sharply, while Blaine accidentally crushes the tot he was going to eat in his hand. He grimaces, speeds over to the glee club table, and sets his tray down a little too hard. </p><p>“Woah, what did that tot ever do to you?” Mercedes exclaims, assessing the damage. Sam peers over from his other side and cringes. </p><p>“Are you okay, dude?” He asks, grabbing a more intact tot from Blaine’s lunch tray. “These are really good.” He says with his mouth full. </p><p>“I um…” Blaine tries to think of a lie, but the only thing in his head are Kurt’s eyes. “I almost slipped on my way over and I was… holding it.” </p><p>“That sucks. One less tot in this world.” Sam takes another tot, and Blaine swats his hand away.</p><p>“What’s going on?” Artie wheels over and sets his tray down much more gracefully.</p><p>“Blaine committed toticide” Mercedes explains.</p><p>“Tragic.” Artie shakes his head. Blaine looks past him at Kurt’s table, where Santana is yelling something and Finn is doubled over in laughter. Kurt is staring intently at his food, like he’d rather be anywhere else. Blaine would text him, but his friends are so so so so so nosy and would immediately snatch his phone to see his texts given any opportunity. It’s not like Rachel hasn’t done it in the past, and she’s sitting close enough. He does not want another ‘oh my god who is Wes and why does he want to know your neck size’ ordeal.</p><p> Apparently Kurt doesn’t have the same idea, as Blaine’s phone dings and lights up with a text from one “K [red heart emoji] [sparkly heart emoji] [football emoji]” (a prompt change after their kiss that unfortunately makes any texts or calls from him incredibly indiscreet) that reads “meet me in the bathroom ASAP ik it’s empty because brett isnt in here and the skanks skipped today also who actually uses a school bathroom? Besides u anyway.”</p><p>“Who’s texting you? We’re all right here.” Rachel pesters, pushing herself up and leaning across the table. </p><p>“Nobody. I’m gonna go use the bathroom, I’ll be right back.” Blaine attempts to leave, but Mercedes puts her hand on his arm to stop him. </p><p>“That wasn’t nobody. I saw a heart emoji there. What are you hiding, Blaine?” She teases. Blaine shoves his phone in his pocket and pulls his arm away. </p><p>“I will pee on you if you don’t let me go to the bathroom.” He threatens. He knows it’s a cheap joke, but everyone recoils enough for him to leave. He walks briskly to the boy’s bathroom, and when he pushes the door open he sees Kurt fixing his hair in the mirror.</p><p>“Oh thank god, I thought you were never gonna show up.” Kurt sighs, pulling Blaine into a tight hug. It’s warm and secure. His head rests perfectly in the crook of Kurt’s neck. “I hate our boundaries. Now that you know how I feel I’m going crazy being apart from you like this. We need to change them before I die.” He talks so fast that Blaine can barely catch what he’s saying, and his face is flushed and drawn in. </p><p>“I’m okay with that. You know I’m out, these are all for you.” Blaine shrugs, and Kurt visibly relaxes. One of the sinks drips, and the sound echoes around the bathroom. They both pause when they hear it to make sure it isn’t someone else coming in. </p><p>“We have to spend some lunches together. Like, not in the bathroom, somehow.” Kurt determines, fidgeting absentmindedly. Blaine just nods and grabs his hands loosely to still them. </p><p>“We could sit in my car?” Blaine suggests. Kurt thinks for a moment, and smiles. </p><p>“My car. Yours is way too small.” </p><p>“I thought you said it was cozy?” Blaine crosses his arms. </p><p>“It was the heat of the moment.”</p><p>“Fine, your car is better.” </p><p>_+_+_+</p><p>It takes two weeks for anyone to notice that something is up. Two weeks of them disappearing on Tuesdays and Thursdays during lunch, two weeks of coffee dates on Wednesdays and hangouts at Kurt’s house with Quinn on Fridays. Two weeks in which they learn so, so much about each other. Blaine learns that Kurt cares a little too much about his skin, that he’s a huge softie who loves casual contact when they’re alone, that Quinn is his best friend and he thinks she’ll be the most successful woman on the planet in twenty years, that he keeps fashion magazines under his bed like porn, and that he really likes scarves. But that’s not even the half of it. Two weeks until Tina comes up to Blaine with Sam and declares that they’re staging an intervention. </p><p>“Blaine, we need to talk to you. This crush on Kurt is getting way out of hand.” Tina crosses her arms and steps in front of him, blocking his exit. Scoffing, he shuts his locker. </p><p>“What are you talking about?” Blaine feigns ignorance. “I’m not acting any different than I have been.” </p><p>“Please, Blaine. We used to hang out constantly and now it’s ‘Kurt this, Kurt that, Kurt Kurt Kurt!’” Tina rants. “We’re staging a Kurt-tervention.” </p><p>“I don’t-“ he starts, but Sam cuts him off.</p><p>“Dude, you’ve been acting differently. Take it from me, cause I’m really not that observant and I got this. You’ve stopped coming to lunch every day and I know you don’t do anything because you don’t have any other friends, no offense. You never hang out with any of us after school, either.” Sam points out. Blaine feels like he’s in a police interrogation, and a wrong answer could land him on death row. </p><p>“I have… clubs at lunch. I’m in like six clubs. Can I not have friends outside of glee club? Why does it matter if I like him? He’s my friend. He’s fun to be around.” Blaine sniffs. He’s being overly confrontational, but unfortunately he doesn’t care. Also unfortunate is that Kurt happens to by walking past at that exact moment, and he backtracks to insert himself in the conversation. Tina of all people should’ve known that the passing period at the end of school before glee club and football was one of their chatting times, and thus would be a terrible time to do an intervention of this manner. </p><p>“Who’s your friend?” Kurt asks, smiling. Tina’s jaw drops, and it occurs to Blaine that Kurt’s status is still something of godlike importance in her eyes- even though she tried to berate him in the school parking lot. </p><p>“You!” Blaine exclaims, and Kurt puts his hand on his shoulder.</p><p>“Oh!” Kurt appears pleasantly surprised, and Tina seems like she finally gets his alien theory (which he has since officially debunked. They just act like that because of the whole gay situation. But he can’t tell them that). “While I have you, do you have any of those cream puffs we made left? I’m of the opinion that they-“ he points to Sam and Tina, “-have not tasted food until they taste the combined powers of our cooking. Well, that and Quinn’s mixing skills.”</p><p>Blaine snickers at the memory of that day. He recalls the three of them getting covered in most of the ingredients rather than baking with them because Kurt put some flour on Blaine’s nose, so Quinn felt it appropriate to break a whole egg on Kurt’s head. </p><p>“I have some in my fridge, yeah.” Blaine nods. He’s flaunting his relationship (rather, the fact that he has any at all) with Kurt and basking in the glow of his friends’ astonishment. </p><p>“If you bring them tomorrow you may risk the threat of my swooping by your table like a… hawk or vulture or something like that and taking some. Be warned.” Kurt jokes. He squeezes Blaine’s shoulder and bows his head slightly before drifting away.</p><p>“I’m sorry.” Tina sighs. “I think I’m just worried that you’ll abandon us for him.”</p><p>“I won’t.” </p><p>“You should invite me to one of your hangouts sometime. I feel so out of the loop!” She prods his side, and he chuckles.</p><p>“I’ll talk to Kurt about it, since we always go to his house. I’m sorry that I’ve been distant Tay-Tay, we can totally hang out more.” Blaine pulls her into a hug. She leans into him, and he’s flooded with guilt for lying to her about the status of their relationship. If she knew she’d understand.</p><p>_+_+_+</p><p>Blaine treasures his Monday-Wednesday phone calls with Kurt. Those are the only days they don’t really see each other other than in passing, so it’s important to him that the connection remains intact. This Monday, he sits on his couch rather than hiding away in his room. His parents are both out of town again, so he puts the phone on speaker.</p><p>“Hey honeybee!” Kurt greets, his voice fuzzy over the phone.</p><p>“Hey! Honeybee, that’s new.”</p><p>“Do you like it?”</p><p>“Yeah, it’s cute. How was your day?”</p><p>“It was fine. I slipped during practice and got a nasty scratch on my arm. Um… let’s see… Quinn and I are putting up campaign posters, which you’ve probably seen.” </p><p>“Yeah. They’re like… everywhere.” </p><p>“You know, you’re the only teenager I know that likes talking on the phone this much. Everyone else I know texts.” Kurt comments.  </p><p>“Well, call me old fashioned, but it feels more personal.” </p><p>“Alright, old fashioned.” </p><p>“Ha ha.” </p><p>“That’s really sweet, honestly.”</p><p>“You’re sweet.”</p><p>“So what’s going on in Blaine land? Anything exciting?” Kurt changes the subject.</p><p>“Auditions for the musical are tomorrow. West Side Story. But we’re worried about not having enough guys since Sam and Puck aren’t exactly the most commanding presences on the football team and Santana doesn’t care enough to blackmail people into doing it.” </p><p>Kurt doesn’t respond for a moment.</p><p>“What do you need to audition? I can… I can help you with yours.” </p><p>“A short monologue and an audition cut of a song. I’m doing ‘Something’s Coming.’” </p><p>“Audition cut?”</p><p>“It’s when you choose a part of a song that shows your vocal range and ability the best.”</p><p>“Oh. Okay. Hold on… I have to go, my dad is trying to talk to me. See you tomorrow?”</p><p>“Yeah.” </p><p>The conversation ends abruptly, and Blaine feels a twinge of betrayal. He was willing to listen to Kurt talk about prom royalty, but Kurt couldn’t hear him out about the musical. It’s odd, because he knows Kurt loves musical theatre, so it’s not like it’s something that would bore him to talk about. Their conversations had gone for hours in the past, but this one didn’t. The whole thing seems off to him, and he knows firsthand that Kurt is partial to scheming.</p><p>Could be?<br/>
Who knows.</p><p>_+_+_+_</p><p>A moment of Kurt: To Quinn:</p><p>K: pls talk me out of this</p><p>Q: absolutely not. </p><p>_+_+_</p><p>The next day, the pre-audition anxiety is palpable in the air. As Mr. Shue conjugates more verbs on the board, he runs through his monologue. He’s humming his song all throughout physics, much to the chagrin of everyone around him. In English, he writes down both instead of his required essay to make sure he doesn’t forget his lyrics, which results in his teacher pulling him aside and telling him to focus. It’s the worst at lunch, though. Everyone in glee club is auditioning, so he feels like he should sit with them. He shoots Kurt a text telling him so, and thus has to make do with watching Quinn and Kurt’s act from afar for the second day in a row.</p><p>“I’m not nervous.” Rachel gloats. “I was born to play Maria.” </p><p>“You were born to play Maria? Please, white girl.” Mercedes scoffs. Rachel glares at her, and Artie groans.</p><p>“I’m going for Tony.” Blaine adds, and Rachel’s eyes light up. </p><p>“You’re a shoo-in. Who else would? Puck?” Tina snorts. They all laugh at the thought of Puck as someone genuinely sensitive and reformed. Blaine brought his own lunch today- a turkey sandwich with white bread that tastes utterly bland but so much better than the school lunches. It’s more for the texture than anything, as he loves the way it feels when his teeth sink through the bread. He feels somewhat childish with his little Tupperwares in front of him, especially because he made a point to bring his own cookie so that he could still have one without getting it at school. He glances down at his red shirt, which he has dubbed his “lucky shirt” because he’s never had anything particularly bad happen to him while he’s wearing it. He considers if Tony would bring a cookie in a Tupperware and wear a lucky shirt to school for an audition and decides that he absolutely would not. He also knows that Rachel woke up at 5:00 am to warm up and Mercedes chose her audition song two months ago, so he’s not exactly out of place. </p><p>The bell rings, so he shoves his lunchbox in his backpack and walks with Mercedes to APUSH. On the way he runs into Kurt (not literally this time) and Quinn.</p><p>“Hey.” Kurt greets quietly. Blaine stops walking and stares at him, while Quinn and Mercedes hang back. The breach of their boundaries is unsettling. </p><p>“Hi! Sorry about lunch today.”</p><p>“It’s fine, I totally understand. I just wanted to tell you to break a leg later.” Blaine’s heart swells.</p><p>“Thanks! You too! I mean… I don’t think that’s a good thing to tell someone in football and you’re not auditioning… um… pretend I didn’t say that. I’ll see you later!” Blaine rambles. He thinks this shouldn’t be a problem anymore now that they talk constantly, but apparently not. </p><p>“See you later.” Kurt waves and walks away arm in arm with Quinn. Blaine turns to see Mercedes with her arms crossed and eyes narrowed at him.</p><p>“That was so sad.” She shakes her head. “Come on, let’s go learn about the Great Depression. That’ll cheer me up after watching that.” She jokes, but Blaine just rolls his eyes. </p><p>_+_+_</p><p>“Bumblebee bumblebee bumblebee bumblebee bumblebee…” Rachel warms up in the hallway. Loudly. Blaine, having already warmed up, listens to his song on loop to make sure he really has it. When Coach Bieste pokes her head out of the auditorium door and calls his name to alert him that it’s his turn, his hands begin to shake. He firmly believes that the worst part of theatre is auditioning. He wipes his sweaty palms on his pants and climbs the stairs to the stage. His music begins.</p><p>“Could be, who knows…”</p><p>He kills it, based on their excited reactions. Bless his lucky shirt.</p><p>_+_+_</p><p>A moment of Kurt </p><p>“What the fuck am I doing?” Kurt whispers to himself as he shuts his car door.</p><p>_+_+_</p><p>Even though Blaine has finished his audition, he hangs back to support his friends. When Rachel exits the auditorium after hers, she tells Blaine that they’ll have to develop their chemistry because it’s clear they’ll be playing opposite each other. Mercedes disagrees. Mike goes last, so while he’s in the auditorium, Blaine gets ready to leave. When Mike finishes and heads home, the door doesn’t open like he expects it to. Instead, he hears music start.</p><p>_+_+_</p><p>A moment of Kurt </p><p>“Um, hello. I’m Kurt Hummel, and I’ll be singing ‘Invisible’ from  ‘Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown’.” Why is he doing this? </p><p>“Isn’t that a song for a girl?” Artie asks.</p><p>“It’s well within my range.” Kurt replies. </p><p>“Wow, Kurt, I’m surprised to see you here.” Coach Bieste remarks. </p><p>“Aren’t we all?” Kurt nervously chuckles . The music swells, and he takes a deep breath. God, he’s really doing this…</p><p>_+_+_</p><p>And Blaine is glued to the auditorium door. He can’t believe what he’s hearing. He knows that voice. He wonders if he’s going crazy, and looks around the hallway. There’s nobody else there. He can’t catch the words, he isn’t even really sure what song it is. He just knows that voice. It’s incredible. </p><p> </p><p>_+_+_</p><p>A moment of Kurt</p><p>“That was surprisingly incredible. Great job! We’ll get back to you.” Artie compliments as Kurt stands on the stage. He felt good while he was singing, but now that he’s done he still isn’t sure why he did it. He sneaks down the stage stairs and pushes the door open.</p><p>_+_+_</p><p>As Blaine stands and pulls himself together, he comes face to face with Kurt. Literally face to face, as in their noses are nearly touching. Nearly because of the height difference. If the door opened out instead of in, Blaine would be a pancake. They stand like that for a moment, unsure of how to proceed. He doesn’t know if he should say something, or even what to say. Eventually, Kurt tilts Blaine’s chin up and leans in to kiss him, and his mind goes blank.</p><p>“I auditioned.” Kurt eventually breathes, breaking away from the kiss.</p><p>“Why?” Blaine asks.</p><p>“Partially to be closer to you, partially because I love theatre. I’ve wanted to do a musical for years, but never had the motivation.” Kurt replies. “Thank you.”</p><p>“I heard you. You sounded incredible. You know, you always zig when I think you’re about to zag. I love... that about you.” Blaine murmurs, and Kurt kisses him again. It’s so gentle, and in the dimly lit hallway he feels like they’re the only people on the entire planet. </p><p>It only takes 4 words to remind them that they aren’t.</p><p>“Woah, what the hell?” Rachel exclaims, dropping her bag. The contents spill all over the floor.</p><p>“Oh my god.” Mercedes gapes like a fish. Blaine and Kurt pull apart quickly, and Blaine’s stomach drops. They’re like deer in the headlights. For a moment the only sound is Rachel’s metal water bottle rolling down the hall. Eventually, Kurt inhales shakily. </p><p>“I’m sorry.” He sobs, and runs back into the auditorium- no doubt to go out of the back door.</p><p>“Kurt!” Blaine yells, following after him. He runs up the carpeted aisles, through the back exit, and eventually finds Kurt at his car digging through his bag for his keys. Blaine takes a moment to catch his breath from running halfway across campus, and places his hand on Kurt’s arm to still it. </p><p>“Don’t!” Kurt cries, pushing his hand off. He continues to hunt for them.</p><p>“I understand if you want to leave, but you can’t drive like this. It’s way too dangerous. I’ll drive you home, just… please stop, Kurt.” Blaine pleads. </p><p>“A car crash doesn’t sound so bad right now. Leave me alone.” </p><p>“Kurt!” Blaine shouts, stunning Kurt into stillness. He grabs his hands, which are shaking and wet with tears, to cease his digging. “Please. Get in my car and I can take you home.” Kurt sighs and acquiesces, climbing into the passenger seat of Blaine’s car. Blaine isn’t even sure when he unlocked it. He gets in the driver’s seat and puts the key in the ignition.</p><p>“I’m so scared.” Kurt whispers before dissolving into more tears.</p><p>“It’ll be okay. I promise it’ll be okay. Mercedes… she’s an angel, and even though Rachel can be annoying she’s not necessarily a bad person.” </p><p>“I believe you. I mean I’m scared of actually going anywhere in your clown car.” Kurt quips, and Blaine smacks him playfully on the arm.</p><p>“Kurt…”</p><p>“I’m joking. I’m trying to lighten the mood. Can you please take me home?” </p><p>The drive back to Kurt’s house is mostly silent, save for the pop music playing in the background. ‘Perfect’ by P!nk comes on when they’re around halfway there, which makes Kurt cry more. Even Blaine’s rapping along to the song which normally makes Kurt die laughing only causes him to sob harder. Blaine mostly just doesn’t know what to say until they arrive.</p><p>“Can you walk me in?” Kurt asks as he gets out of the car. Blaine nods and grabs his arm to guide him to his doorstep.</p><p>“Do you have your key or should I just knock?”</p><p>“Knock. I know I won’t be able to find it.” </p><p>Blaine raps his knuckles on the door quickly and anxiously, and as a result almost punches Burt Hummel in the face when he swings the door open.</p><p>“Jesus, kiddo! What the hell?” Burt gasps, pulling Kurt (and Blaine by association) inside. Their house is so much warmer than the outside air. Kurt doesn’t reply, he just collapses on the couch. “I’m gonna repeat myself. What the hell is going on?! Blaine?”</p><p>“I don’t know if that’s my story to tell. I’m really sorry Mr. Hummel.” Blaine rubs the nape of his neck and glances at Kurt, who has stopped bawling and instead settled for the occasional silent tear.</p><p>“Call me Burt, you’re here all the time.”</p><p>“I’ve heard ‘what the hell’ today more times than I think I have in all days previous.” Kurt groans.</p><p>“I’ll add another. What the hell does that mean?” Burt crosses his arms.</p><p>“Blaine, go home. I need to do this alone.” Kurt orders. </p><p>“No, Kurt…”</p><p>“Go. I’ll call you.” </p><p>“Okay. Please call me.”</p><p>“Bye, honeybee.”</p><p>He goes. He doesn’t sleep all night and ignores the 30 missed calls and 100 texts each from Rachel and Mercedes. There’s only one call he cares about. </p><p>_+_+_+_</p><p>A moment of Kurt</p><p>Kurt now knows what it feels like to die. And it feels like getting caught kissing your secret boyfriend(?) when you’re closeted and incredibly popular, getting driven home by said secret boyfriend who you’ve just realized is way too good for you, and then sitting on your bed crying until you’re sure you’re going to throw up while your dad rubs your back and attempts to soothe you even though you know he’s freaking out because he doesn’t know why you’re crying or why you can’t tell him why you’re crying. Meanwhile, your phone buzzes in your back pocket with texts from your fake girlfriend which you know are asking about how your musical audition went because you were so worried about it. Or worse, your secret boyfriend told her what happened and she’s asking if you’re okay. The wound on your arm from football practice hurts but you don’t even care anymore because other things hurt a lot more. That’s what it’s like to die. </p><p>“Kurt, I can’t help you fix your problem if you won’t tell me what it is.” Burt sighs. Kurt shoots him a glare, which is ineffective given that his eyes are incredibly puffy. “Don’t make me start guessing. Let me see… your audition didn’t go well?”</p><p>“It was fine.” Kurt mumbles.</p><p>“You got a bad grade?”</p><p>“No.”</p><p>“Quinn break up with you?”</p><p>“No.”</p><p>“Is she pregnant again? Cause I don’t-“ Kurt cuts him off with a sharp yet watery laugh.</p><p>“Absolutely not.” </p><p>“Does it have something to do with your car? I saw Blaine drove you home.”</p><p>“It was his idea. My car is fine.”</p><p>They sit in silence for a while as Kurt calms down. When the tears have completely ceased, he knows exactly what he has to do. He just really, really doesn’t want to in case it makes a bad situation worse. He peels off his letterman jacket and turns to his dad.</p><p>“Dad… I’m… I don’t think I’m the kind of person you think I am.” Kurt looks down at his hands. </p><p>“Whaddya mean?” His dad questions.</p><p>“I’m… I’ve been lying about something… significant.” Kurt’s trembling more than he thinks he ever has before. He’s surprised he isn’t actively causing an earthquake. </p><p>“I don’t like the sound of that.”</p><p>“I don’t want you to think badly of me. Please don’t.” He thinks his heart might shatter out of his chest. </p><p>“Depends on what you’ve been lying about, kiddo.” </p><p>“It’s kind of my whole life.” </p><p>“You’re gonna need to be more specific than that.” </p><p>“Quinn’s not… I’m… I don’t know…” He pauses to take a breath. “I’m not in love with Quinn.” He decides to start, to test the waters.</p><p>“Is that what this is all about? It’s okay to break up with her, Kurt. I can help you figure out how to do it if you need me to.” Kurt hears his dad breathe a sigh of relief, but he isn’t sure if that makes it better or worse. </p><p>“The thing is I’ve… I’ve never loved her.” Kurt adds. He starts picking at a loose thread on his blanket.</p><p>“You guys have been together for a while, though. You’ve been lying to her? Is that it?”</p><p>“No. She’s the only one I’ve really been honest with. She knows.” Kurt states. Burt’s brow furrows in confusion. “I’ve never loved her because I’m… I’m gay.” The floodgates open, and he breaks down crying again. Burt sits back, stunned.</p><p>“Wow. Can’t say I expected to hear that today.” </p><p>“What?” Kurt asks in return.  </p><p>“I’m gonna be honest here, I thought you were gay up until you joined the football team and started dating Quinn. I guess I kinda accepted otherwise, and I can’t say I’m in love with the idea, but I‘ll try to readjust.” </p><p>Kurt just stares at him. He’d had a foot out of the door the second he’d prompted the conversation, but his dad is saying he’s had suspicions? Suspicions he’d worked so hard to squash? </p><p>“Thank you.” Is all he can say. “How did you-“</p><p>“When you were three all you wanted for your birthday was a pair of sensible heels.” Burt chuckles. “What does that have to do with all the crying?” </p><p>“Well… I’m not in love with Quinn.”</p><p>“I gathered.”</p><p>“But I am in love with someone else.”</p><p>“Huh?”</p><p>“Blaine. I’m in love with Blaine. </p><p>“Oh.”</p><p>“We um… I’m in the closet at school, the only people who know are you now, Quinn, and Blaine, but after my audition I kissed him and some of his glee club friends saw. I’m worried about being bullied or my reputation being compromised because of it.” </p><p>“You kissed him? Hold on, how long has this been going on?” Burt seems more upset at this prospect than Kurt’s apparently obvious gayness.</p><p>“Uh… around a month. Since the football game he came to.” </p><p>“Jesus, Kurt! That’s… alright. Okay. Well, if kids at school give you any trouble, we’ll go straight to the principal.”</p><p>“Thank you, dad.”</p><p>“I love you kiddo. And uh… don’t be afraid to be yourself. You’re a good kid, and any real friends will stand by you just the same. I’m gonna go to bed now. Y’know, process.”</p><p>“I love you too.”</p><p>_+_+_+</p><p>Kurt finally calls at 2:37 am. Blaine is sitting in bed stewing over the day’s events and trying to sleep when his phone starts to ring. He picks up immediately.</p><p>“Kurt?”</p><p>“Blaine. You’re still awake?”</p><p>“I couldn’t sleep.” Blaine pulls his blanket up around his shoulders.</p><p>“Oh.”</p><p>“Are you okay?”</p><p>“I don’t know.”</p><p>“I can come over if you want me to.”</p><p>I came out to my dad.”</p><p>“You did? How did it go?”</p><p>“He took it okay. He said he kind of suspected it.”</p><p>“Wow. I’m proud of you, Kurt.”</p><p>“I feel good. He’s so important to me…”</p><p>“Do you want to talk about what happened today?”</p><p>“I’d rather talk about it in person. Can you sing to me? I think that’s the only way I’ll fall asleep tonight.”</p><p>“Of course.” </p><p>He sings quietly into the phone until he hears soft breathing on the other end. He doesn’t hang up, but allows himself to fall asleep with Kurt.</p><p>_+_+_</p><p>Walking into school the next day feels like a bad idea the second his foot hits the linoleum hallway floor- especially when he sees Mercedes and Rachel waiting in front of his locker. They’re chatting idly until Mercedes spots him and taps Rachel on the shoulder, at which she enters full crazy mode. </p><p>“Blaine Anderson!” She yells as he attempts to turn around. “We deserve an explanation. What is going on with you and Kurt?” </p><p>He’s at a loss for an answer. All he wants is for Kurt to appear, his knight in shining armor, and flawlessly deliver the perfect response to satiate them. </p><p>The only thing his knight in shining armor delivers is a text that says “im not feeling well staying home today bby so sry b there 2morrow promise cant rn.”</p><p>“I don’t want to answer without him here. It’s really… it’s more of a him thing than a me thing.” Blaine replies, and their faces twist in confusion.</p><p>“What does that mean?” Mercedes squints, crossing her arms.</p><p>“It means that I need you to back off, okay? I swear I’ll tell you when I can.” Blaine throws his arms in the air.</p><p>“We only want what’s best for you.” Rachel sniffs. </p><p>“Maybe I only want what’s best for Kurt.” </p><p>“Well we-“ </p><p>“How about this: he’s not at school today, but he said he’d be back tomorrow. Can you just wait until then?” </p><p>“Okay. We can do that.” Mercedes says. He really hopes they can.</p><p>_+_+_</p><p>Blaine isn’t entirely sure what he’s doing when he shows up at Kurt’s doorstep that evening with a warm thermos of chicken soup and a stack of his cheesiest DVDs. As he’s mid-knock, the door swings open and he comes eye to eye with Finn. Well, eye to chest.</p><p>“What are you doing here?” Finn asks accusatorily. </p><p>“I heard Kurt wasn’t feeling well, so I brought some things for him.” Blaine replies, gesturing to his haul. Finn raises his eyebrows.</p><p>“Yeah, he isn’t. From what I heard, He came home upset with you last night. I don’t know what you did to him, but I-“</p><p>“Just let me in, please.” Blaine cuts him off, and Finn stands in the doorway with his mouth open.</p><p>“Fine. Just… be gentle. Mom said that he hasn’t left his room all day and I have no clue what’s up with him.” He concedes, stepping out of the way.</p><p>“Will do.” Blaine tucks the DVD’s under his arm and climbs the stairs to Kurt’s bedroom. The silence is deafening, as there’s usually some kind of music streaming through the door. When he arrives he knocks lightly, but garners no response.</p><p>“Kurt?” Nothing. “Can I come in?” Nada. “Are you alive?” A thinly veiled joke for his biggest fear. “I’m going to come in, okay?” He turns the knob on the door and peers into the room gingerly. It’s dark- the only light being that streaming through the blinds- but it’s enough to see a massive pile of blankets on Kurt’s bed. For a moment, Blaine isn’t completely sure Kurt is even under them, but a muffled groan emanates from the pile.</p><p>“I brought you some soup. It’s my mom’s recipe. She always makes it for me when I’m not feeling well. I also have some movies. I have… let’s see… I have The Princess Bride, High School Musical 2, and Grease.”</p><p>Kurt pulls the blankets off of his head, and Blaine is astonished at his appearance. He’s normally so put together, even when he’s crying. His appearance is one of his top priorities. Now, his hair is unkempt, his pajamas askew, and he’s squinting like he just learned how to see.</p><p>“What are you doing here?” Kurt croaks. Blaine walks over and sits on the bed next to him. It’s incredibly warm, as if Kurt hasn’t moved all day. </p><p>It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure that he hasn’t.</p><p>“What kind of boyfriend would I be if I didn’t come over while you were sick? Seriously.” Blaine scoffs. Kurt raises his eyebrows. </p><p>“Boyfriend?”</p><p>“Yeah. What else would we be?” </p><p>“You just… I guess we never really made it official. We just called it that ‘us thing’.” Kurt shrugs.</p><p>“Let’s make it official.” </p><p>“Okay, boyfriend.” Kurt smiles.</p><p>“Okay, boyfriend.” Blaine repeats. “So I figure you’re not actually sick, right?”</p><p>“Just depressed. I haven’t skipped a day since freshman year.” Kurt hangs his head, and Blaine scootches closer. “I’m sorry I’m putting you through all of this. You deserve to be with someone you can be proud of, who isn’t so worried about compromising their stupid reputation. Someone out.”</p><p>Blaine gasps and puts his hand on Kurt’s jaw. He tries to ignore how weirdly sticky and not-soft his face is. “I am so incredibly proud of you. You came out to your dad yesterday! That’s a big deal. You’re a football star and an incredible singer. You’re also… kind of my whole world now.” He feels a tear slide over his hand, and Kurt’s eyes meet his.</p><p>“Thank you.” Kurt breathes, barely a whisper. Blaine brings his other hand up to Kurt’s face and pulls him into a tender kiss. He once again chooses to ignore how uncharacteristically dry his lips are. Kurt clings desperately to his chest, grasping tightly at the fabric of his polo shirt. </p><p>“I know this is hard for you, but I think we have to talk about what we’re going to tell Mercedes and Rachel.” Blaine prompts. Kurt releases his grip and crosses his arms.</p><p>“I guess… the truth?” </p><p>“That’s probably the best.” </p><p>“Unfortunately. Do you think they’re scared of me enough to keep quiet about it?” Kurt asks.</p><p>“Rachel thinks you’re a god. If anything, it’ll just make her bother Quinn more.” Blaine jokes, but Kurt’s eyes go wide at the mention of her name. </p><p>“Oh god, Quinn. I didn’t tell her I was skipping today.” He scrambles for his phone, and groans at the screen. “I’m so sorry, I have to call her.”</p><p>“I’ll go outside. Give you some privacy.” </p><p>_+_+_+</p><p>A moment of Kurt </p><p>“Hi, Q.” </p><p>“Don’t ‘Hi Q’ me, Hummel! Where the hell were you? Coach Beiste totally hulked out when you didn’t show up to practice today.” Quinn shouts on the other end.</p><p>“I’m sorry.” </p><p>“Okay. Where were you?”</p><p>“Home.” </p><p>“Why? Are you sick? I can bring you some soup.” </p><p>“What is with you people and soup?”</p><p>“Huh?” </p><p>“Blaine brought me soup too.” </p><p>“You told Blaine you were skipping before me?”</p><p>“He just showed up. He probably suspected it though, considering…”</p><p>“Shut up. Just… be quiet. I’m gonna hang up and come over there.” </p><p>The beep of the dial tone signifies that it’s too late to contest. </p><p>_+_+_+</p><p>After it goes quiet, Blaine cracks open the door. </p><p>“Quinn is coming over.” Kurt says. </p><p>“Now?” </p><p> </p><p>“Uh huh. She’s angry, you can go if you want,” Kurt rubs his eyes with the heels of his hands. “Actually, you probably should.”</p><p>“I don’t want to.” Blaine sighs.</p><p>“It’s better that I explain this to her alone.”</p><p>And so Blaine goes. He sits on his couch, alone, and wallows. He sends Kurt a heart emoji before bed, and receives one in response. He has sad dreams. </p><p>_+_+_</p><p>The end of the following school day comes quickly and unwantedly. Rachel and Mercedes stare daggers at Blaine throughout lunch, and when Kurt passes by them in the hallway (innocently, not with intention as he usually does) the tension is palpable. They’d made an agreement to talk before glee club, mostly because Kurt felt that he very well may break his foot during football practice if the expectation were weighing down on him. </p><p>Kurt and Blaine approach the choir room with a reasonable, friendly distance between them- despite how much Blaine yearns to reach out and grab Kurt’s hand. He doesn’t hesitate to shoot him a reassuring glance, though he doubts he sees it based on how focused he is on tearing at the fuzz on the cuffs of his jacket. </p><p>“Hey, it’s okay,” Blaine whispers to him. Kurt looks up, his eyes wide with fear. “Come on. Let’s go inside.” </p><p>When they shut the choir room door, Rachel rises from her spot on the piano bench all too dramatically.</p><p>“Okay. Now can you tell us why you two were KISSING?” Rachel questions. </p><p>“Um… we’re… because…” Kurt stutters. Blaine places a tender hand on his shoulder.</p><p>“I’ll tell them,” Blaine interrupts. “Kurt and I are dating.” He states plainly. Mercedes’ eyes go wide, and Rachel screams an ear-splitting,</p><p>“What????” that makes Kurt flinch. </p><p>“Hold up, what about Quinn? I saw you two together like an hour ago.” Mercedes asks.</p><p>“We aren’t… actually dating. It’s a cover. I’m gay.” Kurt confesses, and Rachel gasps like she just learned that she is NOT going to be America’s Next Top Model. There’s a pause as she processes all of the information. </p><p>“You… does that mean…” </p><p>“It doesn’t mean anything. It is what I said it is,” He cuts off her sputtering. Blaine had forgotten how biting and cold Kurt could be, having been regularly exposed to the tender and doughy underbelly of his personality. “Let’s get one thing clear. Just because you know this does not mean you can go around telling people. I can ruin you with a single word, I know how fast gossip and rumors spread at this school.” </p><p>“Kurt-” Blaine cringes at his harshness. </p><p>“Kurt, we’d never do that. Or, at least, I wouldn’t.” Mercedes says.</p><p>“Hey!” Rachel interjects, though Blaine doesn’t find it unreasonable to believe that she may say more than she should. Rachel feeds off drama like a blood-bloated leech on a 14th-century plague victim. </p><p>“I’m sure you’re a nice guy if Blaine likes you, so we’ll leave it.” She finishes.</p><p>“On one condition. You and Quinn have to be nice to us from now on.” Rachel adds. </p><p>“Okay. Fine. Are we done?” Kurt pushes the sleeves of his jacket up. </p><p>“We’re done. We’ll see you at West Side Story rehearsals, Kurt.” Mercedes bids him ado with a friendly wave, and as he turns sharply on his heel to exit, Blaine follows after. </p><p>“Can I get a hug before you go?” He cocks his head and holds his arms open.</p><p>“Well, when you look at me like that I don’t think I have a choice.” Kurt sighs, falling into Blaine’s embrace. However, their tender moment is promptly dissolved by Rachel’s raucous “awwwww” from behind them. </p><p>“I’ll see you later, honeybee. Sing something good today!” Kurt calls as he exits.</p><p>“Honeybee?” Mercedes giggles. </p><p>“Hey, what was Kurt Hummel doing in here?” Artie inquires as he enters. “This room is like a tank in a toxic waste plant for anyone of his caliber. I’m surprised his skin doesn’t boil when it touches the air in here.” </p><p>“He had a question about the musical.” Rachel lies.</p><p>“I guess he’d probably rather talk to one of you than me.” </p><p>When Mr. Shue finally shows up, Blaine asks if he can sing a song. He sings “Illicit Affairs” by Taylor Swift, which makes Rachel cry. He just hopes Kurt can somehow telepathically register that he granted his request.</p><p>_+_+_</p><p>When the cast list is posted, everyone besides Blaine is shocked that Kurt landed Tony. Opposite to Mercedes’ Maria, of course. Blaine got Officer Krupke, but he’s happy to have been cast at all.</p><p>“This isn’t right. Do you think they mistyped it?” Rachel squints at the cast list. “I mean, there’s NO way Mercedes got Maria over me. It was supposed to be you and I as Tony and Maria, the romantic leads. It just doesn’t make reasonable sense for it to be them-” </p><p>“Holy shit.” Kurt interrupts, coming up behind them. “I got Tony?” </p><p> </p><p>“We’re gonna have to get to know each other better if we’re going to be playing opposite each other.” Mercedes tells Kurt. </p><p>“Do you like clothes?” Kurt asks. Mercedes looks at him quizzically. “Quinn won’t let me make her a dress for prom and insists on going to the mall, even though I could make her something a thousand times better than what the Lima Mall Nordstrom can offer. Let me make you a prom dress.” </p><p>“Wow, really? Get my number from Blaine and text me the deets. I’ll see you later, Kurt.” Mercedes smiles and walks away.</p><p>“I’m sorry you didn’t get the part you wanted.” Kurt frowns, stepping towards Blaine.</p><p>“It’s okay. I like the direction they took with it, going untraditional. I was the safe choice, not the right one. I’m really excited to see what you do with it.” Blaine assures as he stares at the list.</p><p>Kurt Hummel - TONY</p><p>“Thank you. I’m not sure I’d be so generous if I were in your position. I might even brea- stop hanging out with you.” </p><p> </p><p>“Would you? Hm. I didn’t think you were the jealous type.” </p><p>“I wouldn’t, I’m not. You know I’m not. Finn is staring at me, though, so I should probably go explain this to him.” Kurt turns on his heel, leaving Blaine alone with Rachel. </p><p>“What did I do to deserve this?” Rachel suddenly cries, slamming her pointed finger on the cast list. “I do not get secondary roles. We don’t get secondary roles, Blaine! We’re stars! Big fish in a tiny pond. We should be the ones going prom dress shopping together or whatever so that we can kiss convincingly onstage, not Kurt - who has never once been involved in the performing arts at this school - and Mercedes!” </p><p>“We are going prom dress shopping together.” Blaine responds.</p><p>“Your relationship with Kurt is blinding you to the reality of our situation. You aren’t going to be any help.” Rachel scoffs.</p><p>“He’s really good. You’ll see.”</p><p> </p><p>_+_+_+_</p><p> </p><p>Only when Blaine sees him and Quinn handing out candy in the hall does he realize that prom is very, very soon. He’d already planned to go with Rachel and Mercedes, but it stings to think about how he’ll have to watch his boyfriend dance with someone else all night. As he enters his locker combination, Kurt and Quinn strut up to him. </p><p>“Hi! It would be super sweet if you voted for Quinn Fabray and Kurt Hummel as your Senior class prom queen and king!” Quinn holds out the wicker basket of candy for him to take, grinning her classic thousand megawatt smile. Kurt fiddles with his bag for a moment before looking up with the same charming intensity as her. </p><p> “You guys already know I’m voting for you.” Blaine says, pulling a textbook out of his locker. </p><p>“Super cool.” Quinn grins wider, and it’s almost a little scary. He takes a Jolly Rancher from the basket and waits for them to move on to their next unsuspecting victim. “We’ll see you at prom!” She turns sharply, arm in arm with Kurt. </p><p>“Oh! I think my water bottle fell out somewhere back there,” He hears Kurt exclaim. He breaks away from Quinn and walks back to Blaine’s locker. “I’ll be late to lunch today. We need to be on the top of our game for prom. I’m sorry.” He whispers.</p><p>“I get it. Um… I don’t think your water bottle is over here.” Blaine scans the area, but he definitely doesn’t see it.</p><p>“I know.” Kurt murmurs before running to catch up with Quinn.</p><p> </p><p>Blaine sits alone in his quiet car for the first fifteen minutes of lunch. He keeps checking the time on his phone, like looking at it will make it go any faster. He knows Kurt’s intentions aren’t bad, he really does, but…</p><p>Kurt taps on his window. Blaine unlocks the door, and Kurt climbs into the car. His cheeks are pink and he’s breathing heavily.</p><p>“Are you okay?” Blaine asks. Kurt takes off his letterman jacket and pushes his hair back.</p><p>“I ran here,” Kurt pants. “From the other side of campus. You know, it’s one thing to run on a field, but there are way too many stairs at this school.”<br/>
Blaine looks away from Kurt and out into the parking lot. Among the cars, they’re the only people there as far as he can tell. </p><p>“Artie hates that. He said they should put in an elevator to the auditorium.” </p><p>“Are YOU okay? You sound distressed.” Kurt places his hand palm up on the center console. Blaine doesn’t even address it, but he lets it sit there anyways. </p><p>“Yeah, yeah. I don’t know.” Blaine sighs. </p><p> </p><p>“Talk to me about it.”</p><p> </p><p>A pause. Blaine looks at Kurt’s hand, and back out of the window. </p><p>“I’m afraid.” Blaine finally says. </p><p>“Of what?”</p><p>“You.”</p><p> </p><p>“Huh?” Kurt’s voice wavers as he pulls his hand away. “Did I do something?”</p><p>“I’m afraid you’re going to realize that you’re too good for me, and that if you ditched me you could probably have everything.” Blaine admits. He internally curses at himself for how his voice cracks. Kurt barks out a sharp laugh, but Blaine doesn’t look at him.</p><p>“That’s ridiculous and you know it. I wouldn’t have everything.” </p><p>“Why not, hm?” </p><p>“I’m living a stupid sham of a life. I don’t… I wouldn’t have anything without you, Blaine. You are my everything. And even if I could have everything without you, I wouldn’t take it, because I love you.” Kurt exhales shakily. Blaine turns to face him. And he sees him. Their eyes meet. Blaine reaches over and puts a hand on Kurt’s bare arm. It’s warm. </p><p>“I love you too,” Blaine responds. “I’m sorry.”</p><p>“It’s alright. I get it. I am tired of having important emotional milestones in your clown car, though.” Kurt jokes, and Blaine releases his arm.</p><p>“You couldn’t just let the moment sit?” </p><p>“Nope.”</p><p>“I love you.”</p><p>“I love you.”</p><p>_+_+_</p><p> </p><p>“Prom dress shopping!” Tina announces after glee club. “I’m thinking something graveyard-chic. I want to look like a glamorous 1880s ghost bride.”  </p><p>“I want this pink strapless dress from the mall that is absolutely to die for. I think I’ve saved up enough from singing at amusement parks over the summer, but if not I can get my dads to buy it for me,” Rachel raves. “What are you going to wear, Blaine?” </p><p>Blaine pulls his attention away from the loose button on his shirt. “Just a classic black suit. Subtle, yet refined.”</p><p>“What are you doing, Mercedes?”” Tina asks.</p><p>“Kurt is going to make me a dress.” Mercedes grins. </p><p>“It’ll be the best dress in that whole gym, ‘Cedes.” Blaine coos, prompting a snort from Tina. </p><p>“He is so waiting for Kurt Hummel to sweep him off his feet,” Tina giggles. “‘Oh, Blaine, my least popular and most attractive friend, will you wear my class ring?’” She mocks, pitching her voice higher and putting on a slight transatlantic accent. Rachel and Mercedes laugh. </p><p>“Okay, for one thing, that doesn’t sound anything like him. He’s not a schoolboy from 1953. For another, do you think he’d ever ask me to prom? He’s leagues above me and tragically straight. Expecting to dance with him at prom if you’re anyone but Quinn is like going into the forest to look for a unicorn.” Blaine scoffs. </p><p>“Can we just let it go? We have to get to the mall before it closes.” Rachel whines. </p><p>_+_+_</p><p>The Lima Mall is a zoo. Apparently 5 pm on Friday is the ideal time to go shopping, at least according to the disgusting line for the dressing rooms at the department store. Blaine thanks whatever higher powers there may be that he decided to reuse the suit he wore to his uncle’s wedding instead of attempting to buy a new one.<br/>
Rachel, Tina, and Mercedes stand in line, disgruntled. He disregards their idle chatter and stares at the garish carpet, questioning its dated design. It looks straight out of a bowling alley, and not in a good way. He’s starting to sound like Kurt. </p><p>“This carpet is horrible. It looks straight out of a bowling alley, and not in a good way,” he hears. His head shoots up for the source to ensure that he isn’t hallucinating, and his eyes land on Quinn and Kurt combing a rack of dresses. “This is why I never come here.” </p><p>“You never come here because this is the women’s formal dress department.” Quinn scoffs, grabbing a hanger. </p><p>“Blaine, really?” Tina nudges his side and gives him a look. </p><p>“What?” He replies, averting his eyes from Kurt.</p><p>“You’re staring. You look insane.” She berates. Mercedes nods. </p><p>“Oh… oops,” Blaine chuckles nervously, looking back down at the ugly carpet. “He’s right, though. This carpet is gross.” </p><p>“I happen to think it’s… charming.” Rachel argues. </p><p>“It’s disgusting. What ever happened to good old fashioned linoleum?”</p><p>_+_+_</p><p>A moment of Kurt</p><p>“I don’t know why you won’t just let me make you a dress, too. Everything here looks like it belongs on a middle-aged woman who needs a last minute outfit for her second cousin’s shotgun wedding.” Kurt carps, running his fingers over the cheap chiffon skirt of a particularly tragic orange number. </p><p>“Your standards are way too high. I don’t know how your ‘perfect alabaster skin’ doesn’t fall off when it touches your varsity jacket.” Quinn quips, checking the tag on a dress.</p><p>“We’ve gone over this before. It implies that you have a high status, which gives it value. Also, I lined it.” </p><p>“Um, Kurt?” Quinn halts her perusal and gestures behind her. “Look who’s here.”</p><p>His eyes land on Blaine, who’s looking at the carpet with great contempt. He says something that Kurt can’t catch, which causes Mercedes to smack him on his shoulder. Kurt doesn’t want to admit that he envies their easy comradery, but he totally does. </p><p>“I’m gonna go say hi. Don’t get anything too ugly while I’m gone.” </p><p>“I’ll get this orange thing. Meet you at the register?</p><p>He walks away without commenting. </p><p>_+_+_</p><p>“Hey hon- Blaine! Fancy seeing you here.” Kurt greets awkwardly. Blaine pretends that he didn’t hear Kurt almost call him his pet name. </p><p>“Woah, hi!” He responds, as if he hadn’t noticed him a while before. Mercedes and Rachel share a look. </p><p>“It’s really crowded here, huh?” Kurt observes.</p><p>“Yeah. Where’s Quinn?”</p><p>“She’s shopping alone. Said it’d be hard for her to be nice to Rachel in public.” </p><p>“Excuse me!” Rachel exclaims loudly, attracting some attention from passersby. </p><p>“Hi Kurt! How’s my dress coming?” Mercedes asks with a cheeky smile.</p><p>“It’s looking really nice so far. You’re still coming over soon, right?” Kurt replies.</p><p>“Yup.”</p><p>“Blaine, what are you wearing?” Kurt questions. Blaine looks down at his green polo and bowtie that’s patterned with little scotty dogs.</p><p>“Uh, a green polo and-”</p><p>“To prom.” Kurt interrupts. Blaine’s cheeks redden.</p><p>“I’m wearing an old suit. It’s classic. I didn’t really want to spend money on a suit for a  dance that I’m going to alone. Why look extra nice if you have nobody to look nice for, you know?” He doesn’t realize how biting his remark is until after it’s out. It hangs in the air for a moment, a heavy silence that only Kurt and Blaine can feel. </p><p>“Everything is an opportunity for fashion. Quinn and I will probably go for something periwinkle. Speaking of which, I should be going, but it was nice running into you all.” Kurt winks at Blaine and walks away. </p><p> </p><p><em> Do I own anything that’s periwinkle?</em> Blaine thinks to himself, furrowing his brow.</p><p> </p><p>_+_+_</p><p>A moment of Finn</p><p>Finn knows that something is different. Something has been different since that Blaine kid started hanging around. He’s never seen Kurt act how he acts around Blaine around anybody else, not even Quinn. For one thing, Kurt hates being touched, but he lets Blaine hang all over him. For another, he’s always giving him these looks that are so full an emotion Finn can’t even fully comprehend. Before Blaine, Kurt thought all the glee kids were annoying. Or maybe just Rachel. If Finn talked to someone like Blaine at school, Karofsky would probably come by and call him something stupid like “dweebulax” or “gay”, but Kurt can do it and it’s whatever. Probably because Karofsky knows that if he says anything to Kurt he’ll get insulted with words that he couldn’t possibly understand because of 8th grade reading level, but still. Then, there’s the thing that happened the other night, where Kurt came home crying so Burt and him went into Kurt’s room for a while, and then Kurt skipped school the next day. But who came knocking on their door that day? Blaine. Not Quinn, Blaine. </p><p>An observation he makes as he comes downstairs and sees Quinn alone in their kitchen, laughing at something on her phone.</p><p>“Where’s Kurt?” He asks. She looks up and rolls her eyes.</p><p>“He’s in his room. I’m my own person, you know. I don’t have to be attached to him.” Quinn snaps. </p><p>“Yeah… but you’re in Kurt’s house.”</p><p>“Mhm. Do you need me to take a message?” She leans on the counter. Her phone buzzes with another text, and she stifles a giggle at whatever it says. </p><p>“No, what? I live here. I can just… nevermind. Is Blaine here?”</p><p>“What do you think?” She questions. Finn knows it’s rhetorical. </p><p>“Why’s he always hanging around? It seems kind of weird that he’s spending time with Kurt instead of his girlfriend.” Finn says. Quinn sets her phone face down on the counter.</p><p>“Why is it any of your business? He’s a cool guy. Maybe Kurt just wants a friend that can talk about something other than girls’ bodies and football plays.” She scoffs. </p><p>“Can’t you talk about those things with him?”</p><p>“A guy friend. Plus, Blaine’s gay. He doesn’t really appreciate it when I talk about girls’ bodies.” She picks up her phone again and types something.</p><p>“What do guy friends talk about besides football and girls’ bodies?” Finn is at a loss.</p><p>“I’m not answering that. I’ll be getting back to my conversation now, if you don’t mind.” </p><p>“Who are you texting?” </p><p>“Mercedes Jones, if you can believe it. Don’t get me wrong, she’s not my usual crowd, but she’s fun to talk to. She’s… talented.” Quinn smiles, further confusing Finn. His whole world has been turned on its head. </p><p>Maybe it would suit him better to hang out with a guy that doesn’t care about Santana’s skirt length.</p><p>_+_+_</p><p>And suddenly, it’s prom. Blaine found a periwinkle tie buried deep in his tie drawer, but he was too nervous to color check it with whatever Kurt and Quinn decided to do. Mercedes looks incredible in the velvety royal purple dress Kurt made for her, and Blaine was correct in his assumption that she’d be the best dressed. The pre-prom pasta he eats during their pre-prom Breadstix dinner is incredibly unsatisfying. Or maybe that’s just him.</p><p>Blaine can’t shake that feeling of deep dissatisfaction when he walks into prom with Mercedes and Rachel. Mr. Shue had roped the New Directions into performing, so Artie is singing some loud pop song that he doesn’t particularly feel the need to listen to. He sits in a plastic chair, noting the lack of actual theme for the dance. His normal buoyant personality is stifled by the sight of Quinn and Kurt getting their groove on in the middle of the dance floor, and he’s a little surprised by how he’s responding considering that he knew with absolute certainty that a lonely prom was inevitable. It’s coming to fruition that his twittering about “oh, it’s fine, I’ll have my friends there with me and I know you aren’t actually in love with her and blah blah blah” to a worried Kurt over the phone one night when he was asked about how this prom thing was impacting him was entirely performative. To add to the damage, Blaine had gladly volunteered to sing for the slow dance, because he knew he wouldn’t have anyone to dance with. He hadn’t fully processed that this would mean not being able to actually slow dance at his prom, something that every teen gay feels the desire to do after watching enough high school romance movies. It’s always the big reveal- the jock with a heart of gold ditches the bitchy cheerleader for the sweet brunette who likes to read or do chemistry or whatever because the cheerleader said something just a little too mean, and the bitchy cheerleader probably gets cake or punch on her dress and she storms out in a huff with her sycophants following close behind. Not to say that Quinn is a bitchy cheerleader,  because Blaine knows she’s actually pretty nice and her deal with Kurt is cool, considering that she could date someone who could actually love her if she wanted to. </p><p>Tina interrupts his brooding by slapping him on the arm. </p><p>“Get up and dance with me, Blainey-days! Mike is singing and though I wish I could stare longingly at him for the next three and a half minutes like you’ve been looking at Kurt, I really like this song and I don’t want to waste it.” She orders, pulling him up. Since when were her arms so strong?</p><p>“Sure.” Blaine shrugs, allowing Tina to pull him out onto the crowded dance floor. He shakes and shimmies along to the song, does one of his (as Kurt puts it) “cute boyband spins”, and tries to stop wallowing in self-pity. As cliche as it sounds, allowing the feeling of the bass pounding in his stomach to take him away helps clear his mind a little. </p><p>“I still think we should’ve run for prom royalty. I think being friends with you might have hurt Kurt’s rep enough to give us a fighting chance at second place.” Tina says as she dances.</p><p>“There is no second place in prom royalty, T. I genuinely don’t think anybody knows or cares about who we are, besides that we’re in glee club and I’m gay. Normal people make up most of the school population, it’s just the ones that suck or are really hot that scream the loudest.” Blaine argues. </p><p>“You could’ve made a really good point if you didn’t add that second part.”</p><p>“Am I wrong?”</p><p>“Well… no. Oh, hey, the song’s over. You’re up next, right?” Tina asks. He hadn’t read the setlist carefully enough to realize that they were at the eve of the dreaded slowdance.</p><p>“Ugh, yeah. I’ll see you later.” He walks away from her and weaves through the crowd until he reaches the stage. He takes the microphone from Artie and begins his rendition of “If You Leave Me Now” by Chicago.</p><p> </p><p>_+_+_</p><p> </p><p>A Moment of Kurt</p><p>“I don’t have to do this if you don’t want me to.” Kurt whispers to Quinn as they sway to Blaine’s singing. His hands rest comfortably on her hips, he’s used to it. It’s normal for them.</p><p>“No. This isn’t for me. I’ll still get what I want, which is a lovely plastic crown to put on display in my bedroom. We’ve been doing this dance for way too long and I think we both know it.”</p><p>“I just-” He starts.</p><p>“I know you’re scared, but we talked about it and we know it’s the right thing to do. But I am going to put my head on your shoulder and dance to this stupid 80’s song like this isn’t about to happen, because I’m gonna miss it.” So she does.</p><p>“Thank you, Quinn. I mean it.” </p><p>“I know you do, K.” She sighs.</p><p>“‘A love that’s ours is love that’s hard to find…’” Kurt sings along, granting a laugh from Quinn. </p><p> </p><p>_+_+_</p><p>Blaine concludes his ballad and steps off the stage to make room for Principal Figgins, who somehow always manages to make the mic give off ear-splitting feedback. </p><p>“Students of Mckinley high. It is time for me to announce your prom king and queen nominees. For prom king, we have Rick Nelson, Stoner Brett, and Kurt Hummel,” He pauses for whoops from the crowd. “And for queen, we have Emily Ratajowsky, Lauren Zisces, and Quinn Fabray. Your prom king is…” another hush as he peels open the envelope. “Mr. Kurt Hummel!” </p><p>Kurt accepts the crown with a gracious smile, but Blaine can see something weird behind his eyes. Despite this, he claps the loudest (besides Quinn, who is well aware that she’s won.)</p><p>“And your prom queen… Quinn Fabray!” Figgins announces. She accepts her crown just as well as the audience cheers. “As is tradition, Ms. Fabray may make a speech.” </p><p>Quinn steps up to the microphone and smiles. “Actually, Kurt has something to say.” </p><p>Blaine feels like he’s been slapped in the face. He knows Quinn has been waiting for this moment for forever, and Kurt didn’t say he was planning anything. The crowd titters with anticipation.</p><p>“Hi everyone,” Kurt says shakily. “First of all, I’d like to say thank you. Quinn and I are honored to be your prom royalty this year. Though, it’s difficult for me to accept this crown. I know it’s all symbolic and no actual power is granted through the title, but typically, a king and queen are leaders. I once read that a dishonest leader is the most dangerous kind, and well, I haven’t been honest with all of you,” Blaine’s heart leaps into his throat. “I’m not Kurt Hummel, kicker for the football team, dating head cheerleader Quinn Fabray. I’m still Kurt Hummel, I’m still the kicker, those are nothing different. I need you all to hear that: those are nothing different. But the truth is... I’m gay,” A collective gasp falls across the crowd, and Tina grabs onto Blaine’s arm. “Quinn has been gracious enough to relegate her position in the king and queen’s dance. So, if he’ll have me, I’d like to… um… I’d like to invite my boyfriend to dance with me instead,” Now it’s Blaine’s turn to gasp dramatically (the rest of the crowd does too, again). He hesitates for a moment, suddenly becoming acutely aware of his surroundings. Tina’s hand grips him harder. “If he’ll have me?”</p><p> </p><p>The student body falls completely silent, with everyone staring at the center of the dance floor. Watching, waiting to see who this mystery boy is or if he’ll even come. </p><p>Blaine’s feet move before his mind does. Heads turn at the sound of his footsteps and his rustling suit pants. </p><p>_+_+_</p><p> </p><p>A Moment of Kurt</p><p>He’s crying, but he doesn’t know why at this point. He’s not sad. He’s not afraid anymore.</p><p>He grabs Blaine’s outstretched hand and allows himself to exist. Santana sings, but he can’t even hear the song.</p><p>“I love you, honeybee.” He whispers in Blaine’s ear. </p><p>_+_+_</p><p>“I love you too, Kurt.” Blaine whispers back. They’re a spectacle. A glittering, gorgeous, periwinkle spectacle. </p><p>Kurt makes heads turn. He glows. He’s ethereal. Despite all of the bodies in that room, his hands on Blaine’s waist make him feel like they’re the only two people on the entire planet, swaying to the music, cheek-to-cheek.</p><p>There really is something about Kurt Hummel.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Hope you liked it :)<br/>Comments are appreciated!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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